Crowd had no Brazilians to cheer for, so they cheered for the Brazilian referee

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Riocentro Pavilion 6 was sold out on Aug. 16, as fans waited for Robson Conceição to make history and become the first Brazilian boxer to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games. Conceição was the only Brazilian fighter competing that day, but another Brazilian stole the show before his final.

Joshua Buatsi and Adilbek Niyazymbetov were competing for a spot in the 69kg final, and the crowd went nuts when it was announced that Jones Kennedy do Rosario, from Brazil, would be the referee of the contest.

“Oh, f---, Rosario is here!”

“Ah, Rosario is better than Neymar!”

Every popular soccer chant was adapted to celebrate “badass” Rosario. Anything he did in the fight, from separating the boxers to ending a round, was celebrated as a goal by the Brazilian crowd. Nobody knew who he was before that day, but it didn’t matter.

“I went back to the judges’ room and all the referees started chanting ‘Rosario! Rosario!’” Rosario told SB Nation. “The next morning, I was scared with the number of phone calls and news about it. It was amazing. I was always a quiet person, and the next day was awful. I mean, it wasn’t awful that people were calling me and showing my work, but my phone would stop for a second [laughs]. It was unprecedented. When I go out in the streets, people recognize me.”

Rosario had no idea what was happening in the crowd during the actual fight, though.

“I can hear the crowd, but I try to concentrate on doing my job because a referee can’t think,” he said. “If you think, you’re making a mistake. We’re dealing with athletes’ dreams. They train hard for four years for this, so we have to be fair. A small detail can end with someone’s career. You have to be discreet in this job, and I ended up being more celebrated by the crowd than the actual fighters, the stars of the show. It was priceless.”

Working as a referee for 20 years, Rosario hopes to work one more time Sunday, the last day of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. There will be no Brazilians fighting in the final day, but being celebrated by fans in a historical day for his country in boxing was better than any medal for the veteran referee.

“It’s a pleasant surprise to see everybody recognize the work I’ve been doing for 20 years as a referee,” he said. “I’ve worked in eight world championships and back-to-back Olympics finals. This recognition from the crowd is like a gold medal to me. I ended up being the protagonist for a moment.”

Niyazymbetov ended up beating Buatsi that day to advance to the final, where he lost to Cuban boxer Julio César La Cruz to win the silver medal for Kazakhstan. At the end of the day, the only thing that mattered for Brazilians was that Rosario was in there — and that he was “better” than soccer superstar Neymar.

“Imagine if Neymar said yesterday that ‘Neymar is better than Rosario now’,” Rosario laughed, mentioning Brazil’s win over Germany to clinch the first Olympic gold medal for Brazil in soccer Saturday afternoon. “They won the gold medal in soccer. They won, but they didn’t do it convincingly. Anyway, it’s just a joke that it’s still in the media. It’s funny.”