Joe Murray, the bantamweight, became the first Great Britain boxer to be beaten at this Olympics Games, when he lost 17-7 to Gu Yu, of China, although Murray has every reason to feel hard done by after getting a rough deal from the officials.

Cheered on by a packed home crowd, Gu seemed to be awarded points whenever he touched Murray – including a knockdown when the Mancunian was clearly knocked over by Gu’s upper arm – but Murray’s work never seemed to get its reward.

Twice Murray appeared to stagger Gu, but neither time did it register a point. The second time Gu appeared hurt, in the dying moments, the Chinese was awarded a point. Murray also had reason to be upset at James McNally, the American referee, who issued each with a public warning early on but failed to warn Gu in the last round for running around the ring.

Controversial judging is no stranger to Olympic boxing and there have already been questions raised about the standards in this competition. On Monday, Ukraine lodged an official protest after Oleksandr Klyuchko, their lightweight, lost to another Chinese boxer, Hu Qing.

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Behind early on the scorecards, Murray found himself having to chase the bout and walked into too many of Gu’s southpaw right hooks. Yet, incredibly, despite Murray forcing the tiring Gu all around the ring in the last round, Gu was even awarded that session by the judges.

“The scoring was bad,” Murray said. “They were giving him points for anything, but when I was hitting him they were not giving me points.

“The referee was letting him have it all his own way and the judges were letting him have it his way, so I had to go for a knockout in the end.

“For the knockdown, I hit him with a right hand, but his arm slapped off my head and I went down. If I’d have slipped, he would have ruled it a knockdown, if he’d have touched my stomach they would have given him points.

“I knew what it was going to be like. I’ve watched the scoring the first four days I’ve been here and the scoring has been bad, I didn’t expect any different.

“The referee showed his true colours. He took two points off the Chinese kid for holding, but then, because he was in his backyard, took two points off me too. We got told if you run around the ring you are docked two points or thrown out, but I didn’t hear the ref say ‘stop running’.

“But this is my first Olympics. I’ve struggled like mad for the weight, so I will go up now. See if he [Gu] can come and fight me in my own backyard.”

To his credit Gu paid tribute to Murray afterwards. “He is strong and I think he is better than me,” he said. “I will work hard and I will try my best in every bout.”