Charley Davison loses opening bout at her final Olympics

The Lowestoft mum-of-three, 30, lost to tricky Turk Hatice Akbas by a 3:2 decision in her opening bantamweight bout in Paris on Saturday night. 

Davison, who reached the second round in Tokyo three years ago, started slowly under the Arena Paris Nord lights and despite battling back strongly, was unable to fully recover as the decision went Akbas’ way.

The British star believes she was the only athlete trying to win the fight and took aim at the judges’ defensively-favouring decision-making as her Olympic career came to an end.

Davison, who had previously announced these Games would be her last, said: “This game’s about scoring shots and she was just hitting and running – I was the one putting the pressure on and the one that wanted to engage.

“She was the one running - boxing is about fighting, catching people with the shots and I felt as if I was the one doing that.

“She was running and they favoured that, and I don’t see how.

“I was doing what I did best, but it was obviously not enough and she got the decision.

“The decision is disappointing – I could have started faster in the first round, but you can’t just rush out straight as these opponents are the best in the world, and you play into their hands if you do that.

“She’s a smart boxer, she wanted me to close her down, but she’s got it and they seemed to have favoured that.

“What more could I have done?”

Charley Davison said Paris 2024 will be her last Olympics (Image: David Pearce/Team GB)

Akbas, who was crowned 2022 bantamweight world champion in her home capital city of Istanbul, took the first round on four of the five cards as Davison started sluggishly.

But the East Anglian ace significantly upped her jabbing game to take the second with a three-five split.

Davison continued to rally but in the eyes of the judges, was unable to do enough to edge over the line.

The 2023 European Games bronze medallist, who spent seven years away from the ring after the birth of her first child, was roared on by friends and family at the arena, located around 20km north of the city centre.

“When you’re in the ring you’re closed off from that as you’ve got to focus on the task in front,” added Davison, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support.

“But it’s nice to have that cheer when you hit a shot, them shouting for you and pushing you on.

“The first round went for her, it was a slow start but I definitely upped it after that, upped the pressure and scored the shots.

“She was throwing singles but I was throwing more than one and catching her with at least two every time.

“I felt as if I did enough, edging in and throwing shots, but it didn’t happen for me.”

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