The 20-year-old fought his heart out Wednesday night butcould not prevail over his stronger opponent who scripted a 23-18 victory toromp into the semifinals.
But the high-scoring result left the Indian contingentfuming as they claimed that the refereeing had gone heavily against thediminutive Manipuri who was warned once in the second round for head-buttinghis opponent.
With Devendro's exit, the Indian challenge in the boxingring came to an end with only M C Mary Kom providing the spark with a historicbronze medal in women's boxing which was introduced in the Olympics for thefirst time.
Seven male boxers were in fray here, including 2008 Gamesbronze-medallist Vijender Singh (75kg), who also lost in the quarterfinals.
Backed by the packed arena, Barnes took an early lead bywinning the first round 7-5 and maintained the tempo right through to sendDevendro packing from of his debut Olympics much to the disappointment of theIndian fans.
Both the boxers started the contest aggressively unleashinga flurry of punches at each other but the Irish pugilist relied on hisexperience to gain the upperhand.
Trailing by two points, Devendro continued to be aggressivebut a warning gave his opponent a bigger lead by the end of the second roundwhich ended 10-5.
The third and final round saw both the boxers going all outand Devendro desperately tried to regain lost ground.
Barnes, who had eked out a comfortable lead by then, waswarned in the third round.
