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8/23/08
Cuban Taekwondo Olympian Angel Matos Kicks Referee In The Face At Beijing Olympic Games
I Respectfully Disagree With Your Call, Good Sir
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It's been a rough Olympics for taekwondo, but this just takes it up another notch.

In the photo above is Cuban
taekwondo champion Angel Matos and the guy on the right is referee Chakir Chelbat. Needless to say, Matos had what I'd politely call a "disagreement" with Chelbat.

What happened was Chelbat disqualified Matos in the bronze medal match because Matos took more than the alloted one minute of injury time after he hurt his leg. That's kind of ridiculous that Chelbat did that, but it's not exactly worthy of a kick to the face.

Perhaps even better is that Matos' coach, Leudis Gonzalez, refused to apologize for Matos' actions and criticized Chelbat in the process, saying he was "too strict." 

Here's the Zapruder version of the video clip (because YouTube sucks) courtesy of our good friend The World of Isaac.


 
In case you couldn't already guess, both Matos and his coach have been banned from any taekwondo matches, anywhere, for life.

I think Matos should just be glad he didn't get charged with a felony. By the way, if he's looking for a new job, I'm sure the Chinese would be happy to make him a Tibet-based riot cop.

As I said earlier, taekwondo judging has been a bit of a problem these Olympics. American bronze medalist Steven Lopez said a judge showed "human error" in a match he lost that would have gotten him into the gold medal final, and China's two-time gold medalist Chen Zhong was initially declared the winner of a quarterfinal match only to have the result overturned.

Just so you know, neither Lopez nor Zhong kicked their refs in the face. Which was probably a good move.
READ MORE: Olympics, Fights
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10 comments
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8/23/08
1
Amazing how quickly an "injured" man can jump up...

8/23/08
0
Well that seems like a reasonable response.

8/24/08
0
(Edited by xtra_ill)
FULL POINT !!!

LOL! I looked at the clip and it looked like he tried to go after the other Olympic officials too.



8/24/08
0
xtra_ill wrote:
FULL POINT !!!

LOL! I looked at the clip and it looked like he tried to go after the other Olympic officials too.


Yeah I noticed that too... I wonder if that helped his cause...

What an idiot. I'm sure the guy was emotional about coming that far and not being able to win, but what goes through peoples' minds when they do stuff like this?

8/24/08
0
 I don't know the rules, but if the ref didn't warn them about taking too long, or tell them they had only a certain amount of time due to injury, then that kick in my opinion was warrented, i would have followed up with a 360 spin and a foot to the side of his head.

8/24/08
0
mkol wrote:
 I don't know the rules, but if the ref didn't warn them about taking too long, or tell them they had only a certain amount of time due to injury, then that kick in my opinion was warrented, i would have followed up with a 360 spin and a foot to the side of his head.
Well... you would have gotten banned for life as well, if I had to guess.

8/24/08
0
Jon wrote:
Amazing how quickly an "injured" man can jump up...
He did seem to get up fast and didn't look injured at all as he went "best of the worst" on the referee.

2/23/11
0
His belt should have been stripped away.

Jason, VP Tae Kwon Do

 
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