Rio de Janeiro: Four years ago in London, Vikas Krishan seriously believed it was a miscarriage of justice.

He was shown the red flag for alleged fouls after initially being declared the winner against his American opponent Errol Spence.

On Tuesday, the situation was reversed at the Olympic Boxing Centre in Riocentro. Once again pitted against an US boxer, Charles Conwell, in the 75kg, Vikas emerged the winner in a close contest, which Conwell felt should have gone in his favour.

So much so, Conwell threw his hands up in the air in surprise after the Indian was declared the winner. Looking at his coaching staff, he shook his head in disappointment and refused to talk to the media as he stormed past the mixed zone.

But then, as per the scores, Vikas received unanimous decision from the judges. The American did no favour to himself as he repeatedly committed fouls even after he was verbally warned by the referee. He was lucky not to receive bigger punishment but the local crowd heckled him time and again.

Several members of the Indian contingent were present at the stadium and cheered loudly whenever Vikas landed a punch. The local spectators also supported the boxer from Bhiwani as they did not want the American to win.

The Indian, finally, won a 29-28 verdict from all the three judges. In the prequarter-finals, Vikas will take on Onder Sipal of Turkey.

Vikas admitted the bout was close and he was at the receiving end in the third round. "The American is young... He had youth on his side, but in the end my experience prevailed. My strategy was not to allow my rival to dominate at the initial stage.

"He is only 18 and I knew he will stay fresh even in the last round. So I picked up as many points as possible in the first two rounds," Vikas, 24, said.

"I had never seen him fight before. So I wanted to read his tactics in the first minute. Then I tried to dominate... He was bending down to hit and I expected the referee to warn him, but he did not," said the Indian boxer.

Chief coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said the strategy was to use the superior height of the Indian so that Conwell would not be able to come close. "The opponent wanted to box close and rough. I advised him to punch clear and from distance. The idea was to dominate first two rounds, which Vikas did. The third round did not count unless you lose by a big margin," Sandhu said.

Vikas dropped his guard quite early in the bout but Conwell's attempts at capitalising on it did not quite work out as he landed into a well-laid trap by the counter-attacking Indian.

Vikas seemed more assured in the second round and concentrated on breaking down Conwell's defence by targetting his torso. Although the judges were divided in awarding the round to the former World Championships bronze-medallist, Vikas had done enough to secure himself the handy lead going into the final round.

After being seemingly clueless and fetching two cautions for bending excessively in the first two rounds, Conwell gathered himself in the final three minutes to land a couple of crisp jabs but the effort came too late in the day.