Joshua scrapes through Olympic debut with single point win over Cuban Savon

They let a platoon of British squaddies into the unoccupied posh seats to watch their country’s super-heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua start his Olympic journey and the ludicrous Games judging system did not disappoint them.
Joshua was outboxed and outclassed by Cuba’s Erislandy Savon but was given the decision 17-16 even though he was the winner of only two of the 30 round scores accumulated by the 10 judges.

Just: Anthony Joshua celebrates victory over Cuba's Erislandy Savon by one point

The format by which the scores with the widest margin were removed from the reckoning, further diluted by a calculation of averages, robbed the nephew of all-time Cuban Olympic great Felix Savon of an impressive and comfortable victory.
Even the fiercely partisan home crowd seemed to sense the injustice. The deafening roar which greeted the much-hyped Joshua into the ring had dwindled to a relieved and faintly embarrassed cheer by the time the result was announced.
This travesty kept Joshua on course to untold fortunes — albeit unsteadily — and Team GB’s 100 per cent record in this tournament thus far intact. But it did so at a cost to the British reputation for fair play.

Tough battle: Joshua was made to work by Savon for his win

Joshua was sensibly careful with his reaction: ‘I knew it was a close fight and I leave these things to the judges. I had the crowd against me in the World Championships in Baku when I lost the final. He was much more slippery than I expected. I must put it behind me and move on.’ That he must.
The warped system gifted him the first two rounds and saved him from defeat in his  competition opener, in which I did not give him a single round. Although the incentive for Joshua stretches beyond  Olympic gold on Sunday week to a treasure trove of  professional riches, he must keep his mind focused on the job in hand at London 2012.
Olympic success is the key to unlocking the Aladdin’s cave of heavyweight boxing, as Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield are here to remind him.

Onto the next: Joshua progresses to the next round

Joshua is predicted to be fast-tracked from a relatively brief amateur career into the paid ranks, where Lewis for one has been predicting fame and fortune for the large young man who boxing has reformed into a potential superstar after his teenage drugs conviction. But Lewis called at once for the scoring system to be changed, even though it had favoured his man.
The road from Watford, via London, to Las Vegas and New York’s Madison Square Garden, while paved with more than one circular piece of gold, is tough to tread.
Joshua has the talent and mentality to make that journey but must not get ahead of himself. At 22, he is still  learning this hard old game.
And there are men with fast hands — Italy’s former gold medallist Roberto Cammarelle — and heavy punches, such as Azerbaijani world champion Magomedrasul Medzhidov, coming through the other half of the draw.
Earlier, Brit Luke Campbell made unexpectedly hard work of defeating Italy’s Jahyn  Parrinello. The highly-touted Hull bantamweight edged the decision 11-9.