THE OLYMPIC DREAM is over for Ireland’s badminton hopeful Scott Evans this afternoon.
The Dundrum man is said to have become the ‘most-watched Irish athlete ever’, having taken on world No 1 Lin Dan, in front of a massive Chinese TV audience earlier.
But the game’s superstar proved a class apart for Evans, easing to a 21-8 21-14 victory at Wembley Arena.
“What do you expect when you’re competing against the best ever player to play badminton,” Evans told TheScore.ie afterwards. “If you’re not at the top of your game you’re going to have a hard day. And I had a hard day.
“You need to get to the top of your game when you play him and unfortunately I wasn’t at the top of my game today. My movement was bad and I made some wrong decisions and that was really, of course, that I was a little bit nervous but I was also extremely excited as well and that kind of made me a little bit too edgy. I’m extremely disappointed because I really, really thought that I would go in today and give him a good run for his money.”
And as well as coming up against the game’s greatest exponent, he also had to contend with some dubious line calls from the judges.
“They don’t make a difference really. It’s also a little bit difficult for the girl to see anything when she’s wearing sun glasses. But it doesn’t really make a difference. They were quite close so what can you do?”
Despite the defeat, Evans can return to Dublin or his training base in Denmark with happy memories, having been afforded a wonderful reception into the arena before the showdown with Dan.
“It’s really difficult for me to describe the feeling I had when I walked out there” he told Will Downing. “I wouldn’t have the words to explain what it meant to me. I didn’t expect that the crowd would be great but I got a big shock when walked into the hall and heard that round of applause for me. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it now.”
Ain’t gonna happen anytime soon, unless they decide to match him up with Frankie in a number one contenders match and the winner fights him at UFC 200.
But that would really piss Edgar off, which would be hilarious actually.
I’m staying otta this one…
Aldo isn’t gracious in defeat, on the night or now and he’s still making excuses and threats to the UFC and McGregor. Let him stew.
A guy who’s undefeated for 10 years and champion as long as he is deserves a rematch. He got caught with one shot and knocked out, it happens in fights. The disrespect he is shown from Irish fans is embarrassing to be honest. If McGregor gets tagged in his first defence at 145 ye would all be screaming for an immediate rematch.
I agree Alan 100%. I’m delighted for Conor but Jose was a great champion and does deserve his rematch.
As much as there’s a McGregor bandwagon, theres also a big anti-Mcgregor bandwagon, who will latch onto half truths about his opponents… Aldo was a champion for 10 years becuase he fought in a weight class with very few other fighters for the first 5 and for the last 5 he barely ever fought… when was the last time he knocked anyone out? He was massively fussy about who he would fight, always picking fighters who were well below his ability and dodging the hard match ups. If truth be told, Conor was the first striking test he ever really faced in the UFC… He doesn’t deserve an immediate rematch because he has a history of pulling out of fights that didnt suit him.
So Ken Flo, Korean Zombie, Edgar were not hard match ups? Hominick took him to the brink as well. A great champ, and the only champ at 145. If Cain, Anderson etc get an immediate rematch, so should he
In fairness,who does he think he is,sayin he’s not goin to fight anyone else.he only fights once a yr anyway.think he’s still concussed after McGregor got a hold of him
UFC spent 18 months promoting Aldo vs McGregor. It would be very hard for them to promote it again for another 6 months after how the last fight finished. Especially as Aldo had no interest in promoting the 1st fight and left Mcgregor to do all the media work. As White said,aldo deserves a rematch after being such a dominant champion but the timing for that rematch wouldnt be right now. Let Mcgregor fight RDA and then he can fight Aldo/Edgar at UFC200 in july,but either way 1 of them aint gonna be happy.
It’s not surprising to be honest. Dana White is all about the $, he couldn’t give a toss about who deserves a rematch or who is next in line, whatever fight makes the most cash for the ufc ( ie. him and his business partners) is the fight that will be made. Hope mcgregor demands he gets his fair share, he pulls in way more ppv numbers then a lot of boxers but gets paid alot less then some of them.
He’s gotten his arse handed to him in record time already, is that not enough
One mistake in 10 years? Is that not a reason to give him another shot? Even after the first fight when they were waiting on the official announcement Conor himself was man enough to say they could do it again.
I think Dana is right though. Woukd be hard to promote that. It’s the fight game yes but equally ufc want to make money. The interest for that just isn’t there after last time. Maybe a year down the road might be better for all involved..