‘I would have been embarrassed in the next fight’ – Paddy Barnes says it’s ‘just as well’ his Olympics are over

A bad week for Irish boxing.

Paddy Barnes, along with pretty much everyone in Ireland, was left stunned after he was beaten by Spain's Samuel Carmona Heredia in his first fight at the Rio Games.

https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/762666734964858880

The Belfast boxer was aiming for a gold medal to go with the bronze medals he won in London and Beijing but it wasn't to be as he fell at the first hurdle.

https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/762674012170387456

Barnes will not compete in Tokyo in 2020 so this was a bitterly disappointing end to what has been a glorious Olympic career.

After the fight, Barnes told RTE Sport that he "shouldn't have been fighting at this weight division".

“It’s so hard getting down to this weight, in the second round I had absolutely nothing left to give," he said.

“Midway through the first round I was dead, gone. I had no energy whatsoever. I don’t know where I got the energy from to throw as many punches as I did. That’s just the way it goes.

“It’s always hard to make weight, but this time because I’m training differently I was up to 58kg, to get down to 49kg.

“So there was questions, I was doubting whether I’d make the weight. I just made it, and I’d no energy in it.

“To be honest with you I thought I was favourite for gold, I honestly believed I would come away with gold."

https://twitter.com/RTEsport/status/762669876158705665

Amazingly, a brutally honest Barnes admitted that it was probably for the best that had lost at this stage,

“But even if they had given me that fight, the next fight I would have got hammered again because I’d no energy.

“It’s just as well I got beaten because I would’ve been embarrassed the next fight.

“This morning will be the last time I make 40kg anyway. Ever.”

But Barnes insisted that the defeat will not cause him to retire.

"Retire? “No, I’ll just never fight 49kg again. It’s just too hard. Too draining."

---

Listen to the latest GAA Hour with Colm Parkinson, Paul Galvin, Aidan O'Shea and Senan Connell. Subscribe here on iTunes.

https://soundcloud.com/sportsjoe-gaa-hour/aidan-oshea-opens-up-on-diving-controversy-and-paul-galvin-tells-us-all-about-being-targeted