‘RIGHT Hand’ Rosie Eccles, victim of one of the worst decisions at the Paris Olympics, has spelled out the changes she wants made.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist from Wales is targeting a return next month after agreeing a new deal with Great Britain Boxing that allows her to train in Cardiff and Sheffield.
Eccles says her targets are next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the 2028 Olympics.
Th 28-year-old combination puncher is confident boxing will be in Los Angeles and World Boxing have made more strides towards gaining International Olympic Committee recognition.
World Boxing announced they have added eight new National Federations – including France, Croatia and Poland – to their membership, taking the total to 68.
Eccles hopes Artificial Intelligence could be the answer to scoring controversies.
There was disbelief in the press box in Paris after she was beaten on a split by Poland’s Aneta Rygielska in the last 32 at 66kgs.
Boris van der Vorst, President of World Boxing, told ‘Boxing News’ in Paris that AI could be the answer.
Eccles, talking to ‘Boxing News’ before she went in the corner with Chepstow ABC’s boxers at their show last month, said: “I don’t think anyone wants a return to the tippy tappy point scoring style. I hear they could use AI and maybe they could put sensors on the gloves so they can judge the power in the punches.
“I felt let down by the IOC [in Paris]. They used the same judges who had been kicked out before. If you have the same judges, you have to expect the same outcome. They should have had an appeals process, like they have in gymnastics. They let everyone down.”
Eccles explained the shock she felt after seeing Rygielska’s hand raised at the North Paris Arena.
“I watched it again while I was still in Paris,” she said. “I needed to see it for myself. It was so shocking.
“I remember [Performance Director of GB Boxing] Robert McCracken saying before the Olympics: ‘The world will be watching. It will be fair.’ I got a bad decision at a prep tournament and Robert said: ‘Don’t change.’
“I knew she was awkward and wouldn’t be fun to box.
“I thought I knocked her down in the first round [there was no count] and then stuck her on the jab. In the last round, she was just surviving and holding. She got a point taken off. It felt like a done deal.
“I only started worrying when [Great Britain coach] Graham [Alderson] said: ‘They are pressing buttons.’”
The two judges who had the bout level both voted for the Pole and Eccles said: “The whole world just swallowed me up.
“I went there feeling I would win [gold]. I felt I would at least medal. I was sparring so well and thought: ‘It’s all coming together.’ [Welsh coach] Colin Jones said: ‘I will see you in the final.’ I really fancied my chances.”
Eccles says the decision deprived fans of what would have been one of the best bouts of the Olympics.
“The next fight would have been against the Olympic champion [Turkey’s No 1 seed Busenaz Surmeneli],” she said, “and that fight would have made me on the world stage.
“I lost to her twice before on split decisions and thought I won both. They were both wars. I only had my left hand in the second fight and knew I would have another gear at the Olympics. I know that on social media, people were saying: ‘Who’s got the toughest draw? Rosie Eccles.’ But I thought it was brilliant. That was the fight I wanted.
“I felt like a failure. I didn’t want to see people. All that hard work and sacrifice for what? I knew I couldn’t control what happened, but I felt like I’d underachieved.
“I don’t have any regrets. I sleep at night because I gave it everything. I always said I would rather not have an Olympic medal than do the wrong things to get what I wanted. I don’t want to put people down to get where I want to be. I wanted to be a good person in the pursuit of my goals. I felt I have stayed the same person and then been let down.
“I also realised what is most important is the health of my family and myself. I realised there is more to life than the Olympics.”
Eccles went on a holiday to Australia to get over her disappointment and after returning to the gym she suffered another blow.
“I fell off the chin up bar and broke my back (in November),” she said. “I broke the sacrum bone. I was mortified.
“After one week back in the gym I was out for eight weeks!
“I have been back for three weeks (on January 25). I’m looking to box again in March and ease my way back in.
“I have decided to stay on for one more Commonwealth Games and one more Olympics. I love being part of a team and boxing for my country.
“Great Britain have offered me a new contract. I’m working with Great Britain and the Welsh team.
“I get to spend time with the Welsh programme and go to Sheffield.
“It will be a partnership. I have been working with Colin Jones since I was 18 and we will still be working together. I will spend probably 75 % of my time with the Welsh team.
“They (Great Britain) want to retain boxers, but I couldn’t live that life for another four years. My body couldn’t take it anymore. It’s relentless and it really takes it out of you and I need more balance in my life.
“I love training with Colin Jones and I’m grateful GB still want me. This is a balance that will work.”
Eccles says she has been “obsessed with the Olympics since I was eight years old” and after covid wrecked her hopes of going to Tokyo she wants to go to a second Olympics rather than turn professional.
She said: “My style suits pro boxing – I’m a power puncher – and I would love the excitement of the smaller gloves and taking the headguard off, but I don’t think the depth is there.
“I would always love to turn professional, but I feel I would get lost and not get pushed on fast enough. I don’t think I would have trouble becoming a world champion and then what? Where do I go?
“I don’t think I would be fulfilled. I like to be challenged in boxing.”
Eccles says one of her targets is to make Welsh boxing history.
She won silver at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 before powering to gold in Birmingham four years later and said: “No Welsh boxer has ever won medals at three Commonwealth Games.”
