The Commonwealth Games debut of Ugandan super-heavyweight boxer Aziz Abdul ended in controversy after he was disqualified in the third round for head-butting his opponent. Abdul, the 25-year-old grandson of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, was trailing on the scorecards when the referee stopped the match against England's Damar Thomas.
Before the fight, Abdul had spoken about how his grandfather inspired him and expressed pride in his family background. However, the match took a dramatic turn when Abdul, down 20–16 on points, head-butted Thomas in the third round. The referee immediately disqualified the Ugandan boxer.
Following the match, Abdul launched a bitter verbal complaint against the referee. He insisted that the head-butt was not intentional and claimed the official's decisions were unfair. Things became even more bizarre when Abdul refused to answer questions from a British reporter, with a Ugandan team official explaining that Abdul was unhappy about past news articles written about his grandfather.
With the victory, 21-year-old Damar Thomas secured a guaranteed medal in the tournament. Although Thomas admitted the fight was wild and unpolished, he said he was glad to have gotten the job done and advanced to the next round.