Olympic Boxing: Tough Scoring Prevents U.S. Featherweight Williams from Advancing to Quarterfinals

By Jim Everett August 16th, 2008 All Boxing Results

The second round of elimination bouts did not fare as well for featherweight Raynell Williams as it did for team mate Demetrius Andrade, who will proceed to the quarterfinals on Sunday. On Friday, August 15, 2008, Williams lost his chance at an Olympic medal when he was defeated by Khedafi Djelkhir of France, an opponent he previously beat in the 2007 World Championships.

The southpaw Williams was looking to stick and move in the first round and Djelkhir was the first to score a point on the inside. Williams was the busier of the two fighters, using combinations, most of which landed on the gloves of the tightly defensive Djelkhir, but some punches did get through that did not register any points. Williams finally got on the board towards the end of the round, landing a clean counter right to even the score at 1-1.

Djelkhir was the aggressor in the second round, coming in on Williams and landing again, constantly stalking the dancing American. The U.S. featherweight was landing punches that were still not registering points. Djelkhir gets in a right hand, to which Williams responds with a body shot that goes scoreless. Round two ends in favor of the Frenchman, 4-1.

In the third round, Williams came out jabbing and two jabs land, snapping back the head of Djelkhir, but scoring only one point. Both fighters exchange and each score, before Djelkhir scores another point. A lot of action in the third round with both fighters registering less points than are actually landing. Although Williams is staying active, he seemed to spend too much time with leg movement rather than sticking and moving. Djelkhir leads at the end of the round, 7-4.

The U.S. coaches implore Williams to let his hands go in the last round. The fighters begin the fourth in a clinch and wrestle back and forth before exchanging punches that register points. A nice three punch combination by Djelkhir lands with his left hook registering a point. More...

Olympic Boxing: Andrade Leads U.S. Team to Next Round

By Jim Everett August 16th, 2008 All Boxing Results

On Thursday, August 14, 2008 welterweight Gold Medal favorite Demetrius Andrade opened the next round of elimination bouts for the U.S. team competing in the Round of 16 against thirty-two year old Andrey Balanov of Russia, who Andrade had previously lost to as a young seventeen year old at the 2005 World Cup.

Following Andrade into the Round of 16 elimination bouts are featherweight Raynell Williams, who faces Khedafi Djelkhir of France later today, middleweight Shawn Estrada and light flyweight Luis Yanez compete tomorrow and Deontay Wilder moves into the Quarter finals on Sunday due to the smaller field in the heavyweight division.

A quick recap of the rest of the U.S. boxing team starts before the first punch was even thrown. Bantamweight Gold Medal favorite Gary Russell, Jr collapsed from dehydration on the Thursday before the weigh-in, trying to shed one last pound and was not able to compete in the Olympic Games.

Light welterweight Javier Molina was unable to cut off the ring as he chased the faster Boris Georgiev of Bulgaria to a 14-1 loss. Lightweight Sadam Ali abandoned his boxing skills and lost to Georgian Popescu of Romania by a score of 20-5.

One of the most crushing blows to the U.S. team was when two-time Olympian and Gold Medal favorite Rau’shee Warren thought he was ahead on points during the last round and did not throw any punches against Korea ’s Oksung Lee.

With only four seconds left in the bout, Warren noticed his coach telling him to throw punches, but it was too late, losing the chance to fulfill his Olympic dream by a score of 9-8. More...

Olympic Boxing: U.S. Boxing Team Goes One and One on Monday

By Jim Everett August 14th, 2008 All Boxing Results

This past Monday, August 11, 2008, the featherweight and lightweight divisions had their first elimination bouts at the Beijing Worker’s Gymnasium on day three of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing , China where the U.S. team had mixed results.

First up for the U.S., was nineteen year old Raynell Williams, who faced off against Alessio di Savino of Italy in the featherweight division.

The fast southpaw Williams used his speed from the opening bell, having a clear advantage over di Savino, boxing well and landing combinations to score a point. He seemed to be able to register one point with each three punch combination, getting out to an early 4-0 lead at the end of round one.

In the second round, di Savino lands a left to get on the scoreboard with Williams landing a counterpunch at the same time, also registering a point.

The Italian walked straight in on Williams for the rest of the round and Williams was able to land easily. Unlike some of the other U.S. boxers who have already fought, Williams seemed relaxed and confident in the ring.

Going into the third round the score 7-1 was in Williams' favor. The scoring slowed down during the round with Williams only registering one more point.

Williams continued to box well through the last round and scored another point which gave him a final score of 9-1. After the fight, Williams felt that it was a big thing for him to stay calm in the ring and that he needed to use his jab more to set up his punches. More...

Olympic Boxing: Australia’s Anthony Little Wins Big In Beijing

By Bruce Dingo August 12th, 2008 All Boxing Results

The victory drought in Beijing is finally over for Team Australia as Western Australian lightweight Anthony Little outclassed Namibian boxer Julius Indongo today by a score of 14-2 but team mate Paul Fleming fell short in a hard fought featherweight clash with France's Khedafi Djelkhir

It wasn't pretty but Little managed to nullify the height and reach advantages enjoyed by the African, proving a hard target to hit while landing solid counters and generally out-hustling Indongo.

The Perth based 27 year old brought a good deal of experience to the table, having won the Chemistry Cup in Germany and Oceania Championships already this year as well as making it into the second round of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The 25 year old Indongo took Bronze at this year's AIBA African qualifying tournament but wasn't ready for the busy Australian.

Next up for Little is a much higher hurdle in the form of Russia's Alexey Tishchenko, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist at featherweight now campaigning as a lightweight, who outpointed Tunisian boxer Saifeddine Nejmaoui today by a score of 10-2.

Brisbane featherweight Paul Fleming took the fight to French opponent Khedafi Djelkhir earlier in the day and while the gritty southpaw ruled the first round, the European boxer adjusted and won the next three frames. More...