Aziz ‘Ringo’ Abdul was fuming after being disqualified from his heavyweight boxing quarter-final against England’s Damar Thomas.
And he claimed the judges were against him because he is a ‘black African’.
However, the Ugandan head of Commonwealth Sport, Dr Donald Rukare, insisted he had no concerns about the fairness of the boxing competitions.
“We at Commonwealth Sport believe that every athlete is treated fairly in a non-discriminatory manner. We are inclusive,” he said.
“It was a field of play decision. I think that was probably something said in the heat of the moment.
“As far as we’re concerned, we have a good relationship with World Boxing. The athletes are treated fairly. It was a fair field-of-play decision. World Boxing are in charge of the event, and we don’t want to be commenting on field-of-play conduct.”
Boxing their way to the podium 🔥
Damar, Chantelle, Dimeji and Ruby head to the semi finals, guaranteeing them a medal for England 🏴#Glasgow2026 pic.twitter.com/kv7qL81vcR
— Team England (@TeamEngland) July 29, 2026
World Boxing insisted there had been no formal complaint about the fight from either the Uganda Commonwealth Games Association or their boxing team.
Aziz – who had labelled himself the ‘baddest man in the Commonwealth’ and spoken of his admiration for Amin, who killed an estimated 300,000 people during his seven years as president – was deducted points in every round.
He took a standing count in the first round, repeatedly punched out of the clinch in the second round and then, in the third round, head-butted his opponent, forcing Argentinian referee Manuel Vilarino to abandon the fight.
“When you watch the previous fights of England’s boxers, they create a lot of fouls,” he said.
“I land a heavy punch on him, they never count. Instead of counting, they deduct me. I am a black African. He is in his homeland.”
Accusations of bias in Commonwealth Games boxing are nothing new, though the sports recently recognised new global governing body, World Boxing, has invested significantly in ensuring the sport is fairer.
When the Games were last staged in Glasgow 12 years ago, India and other nations expressed concerns over judging, while several teams questioned why Australian fighters were winning so many close contests at the Melbourne Games in 2006.
Consistency, rather than corruption, remains the biggest issue, but World Boxing has introduced measures to reduce bias, gathering in-depth data on scoring patterns to inform the selection of judges, who now undergo enhanced training and certification.
And allegations of bias against African nations also aren’t evidenced by results here, with a guaranteed eight podiums across all men’s and women’s weight categories here: three for Namibia, two apiece for Lesotho and Zambia, and one for Ghana.
Brutal dictator Idi Amin was famously obsessed with all things Scottish, often wearing a tartan kilt and playing the bagpipes. His grandson now wants #CommonwealthGames gold at #Glasgow2024 and claims he’s ‘inspired by grandpa’. pic.twitter.com/10QJTT6c47
— James Toney (@jtoneysbeat) July 26, 2026
Meanwhile, officials from both Scotland and England were left fuming after Melanie Woods and Ellis Kottas had their athletics T54 1500m titles dramatically snatched away, despite an evening of celebrations.
Both enjoyed laps of honour at Scotstoun on Wednesday evening after a race that started with a crash that took out multiple racers.
Double world medallist Woods was expected to win, but Kottas’s silver, upgraded from bronze after second-placed Canadian Nandini Sharma was disqualified, was a shock podium performance.
However, appeals from the Australian and Mauritius teams led to officials announcing the race would be rerun on Friday morning, prompting a furious response from Team England.
“We are incredibly disappointed by the late decision to rerun the T54 1500m tomorrow morning,” said Team England chef de mission Jonny Riall.
“While there is no formal protest process available to us, we have strongly challenged the decision.
“The race officials did not halt the race at the time of the incident, nor was any immediate decision made to declare the race void or order a rerun.
“Ellis and the team therefore proceeded on the understanding that all competition procedures had been completed and the result confirmed.
“Our priority is the wellbeing of our athletes. We will now do everything we can to support Ellis during the extremely short turnaround between receiving this news and being asked to race again.”
Speaking immediately after the race, 21-year-old Kottas – who was due to leave Glasgow today – admitted she never expected a medal, now she’ll have to race to get one again.
“I’m shaking, it’s incredible,” she said. “I’m so proud. This medal is for everyone who supports me – my family and all my coaches.
“Two people struck each other and it was a domino effect, and I had to swerve out of the way. I just gave it my best shot.
“I didn’t know if there was a rule that the race should stop. I was shouting, ‘It is over,’ but my coach told me to go for it. I just locked in.”