London Olympics: Devendro puts up a gallant fight but loses to Paddy Barnes in quarters

A brave-heart L Devendro Singh put up a gallant fight against Ireland's Paddy Barnes before losing the fiercely-fought light flyweight (49 kg) quarter-final bout 18-23 at the London Olympics, says a report in The DNA, adding that with Devendro's defeat India's boxing campaign ended at the Games, as woman boxer MC Mary Kom is the lone medal winner with a bronze.

Indian men's boxing team returns empty handed from the quadrennial extravaganza with only Vijender Singh and 20-year-old Devendro reaching the last-eight stage.

Meanwhile a report in The Times Of India says that the high-scoring result left the Indian contingent fuming as they claimed that the refereeing had gone heavily against the diminutive Indian who was warned once in the second round. “Backed by the noisy crowd, Barnes took an early lead by winning the first round 7-5 and maintained the tempo right through to send the Indian packing out of his maiden Olympics much to the disappointment of the Indian fans. Both the boxers started the contest on a very aggressive note as they unleashed a flurry of punches at each other but the Irish pugilist relied on his experience to gain the upper hand,” says the report.

Trailing by two points, Devendro continued to be aggressive but a warning against him gave his opponent a bigger lead by the end of the second round which ended 10-5. The third and final round saw both the boxers going all out and Devendro desperately tried to regain lost ground. Barnes, who had eked out a comfortable lead by then, was warned in the third round. But he ensured that he did not concede too many points and allow Devendro to bounce back.