Saturday August 16, 2008 was a big day for the U.S. as Michael Phelps made history by winning his unprecedented eighth Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympics, but for the eight members of the U.S. boxing team, their story has not been as fruitful.
Middleweight Shawn Estrada and light flyweight Luis Yanez were unsuccessful in the second round of elimination bouts, leaving only welterweight Demetrius Andrade and heavyweight Deontay Wilder moving to the Quarterfinals.
The Beijing Olympics has been the worst showing in history for the U.S. since boxing became an Olympic sport in 1904. The previous worst showing the U.S. team had experienced was sending four fighters to the Quarterfinals in 2004 at the Athens Olympics.
Although he had a favorable draw, Estrada was not able to get past James DeGale of Great Britain to move to the Quarterfinal rounds. The British southpaw gave Estrada, who abandon his jab, a difficult time.
In the first frame, DeGale was the first to land a clean one-two combination that did not register a point. Estrada moved forward without utilizing his jab, lunging forward while trying to throw a straight right. Estrada was able to land with a right uppercut and right cross, but both punches do not register a point. The round ends 0-0.
In the second round, Estrada, still coming forward without utilizing his jab, circled right against the southpaw instead of to his left. He seemed unsure of how to deal with the southpaw style, only throwing rights and still, completely abandoning his jab.
DeGale scores with a straight left and a right hook also scores. Both fighters exchange punches which scored, ending the round at 3-1 for DeGale. More...
Despite the disappointment of Team Great Britain's Khalid Yafai’s defeat yesterday at the hands of Cuba's flyweight Andris Lafitta by a score of 9-3, James DeGale put in a great effort as he faced US ‘favourite’ Shawn Estrada in the second round of the Middleweight division.
Neither man scored in the first frame, but DeGale went up 3-1 against the American in round two. A bit of a messy contest with the two men looking clumsy.
DeGale improves to 3 up over Estrada as the third finishes at 6-3, then relaxes in the second half of the fourth and final round, affording himself a bit of ‘showboating’. DeGale wins 11-5 and secures his place in the quarter-finals.
Afterward, DeGale said “I didn’t box my best again...it was nerve-racking in there” but added that he “can’t wait for Wednesday”.
DeGale now faces tough Kazakhstani opponent -Bakhtiyar Artayev, who was third at the World Championships in Chicago last year. DeGale has fought Artayev twice before - winning against him in Sheffield recently.
DeGale is the third Brit to make it to the quarter-finals after team-mates David Price at super heavyweight and Tony Jeffries at light heavyweight were also successful.
By Alejandro Tostado August 17th, 2008 All Boxing Results
The Cuban boxing team continued their domineering ways today in Beijing's Worker's Gymnasium as they continue to steamroll anyone who gets in their monumental quest for Olympic Gold.
Just three days after his 20th birthday, lanky light welterweight Roniel Iglesias continued to shatter the myth that the Cuban team would be hurt by defections earlier this year as the kid from Pinar Del Rio defeated Russia's Gennady Kovalev in the quarterfinal round.
Kovalev had competed in the 2004 Olympics as a bantamweight but the 25 year old from Chelyabinsk had transitioned well to the light welter class, finishing second at the 2007 World Championships in Chicago.
But the taller Iglesias proved too much for the Russian to handle as the Cuban pulled clear for a low scoring 5-2 victory.
There are now just four remaining light welters in the mix and joining Iglesias are the Dominican Republic's Felix Diaz, Thailand's Manus Boonjumnong, France's Alexis Vastine, who all won their bouts today. More...
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...
Having a first round bye, light heavyweight Tony Jeffries faced Colombian Eleider Alvarez on Thursday. It was a steady opening round as both men sussed each other out, but neither scored a point in the initial stanza.
Jeffries finally gets the first point with almost a minute of round two gone. A short left followed by a short right scored, which didn't register immediately on the computer scoreboard.
Moments later, a right lands from Jeffries but in the closing seconds, the Colombian lands a right and the score is 2-1 end of the second frame.
Both men come out looking more motivated in round three and Jeffries immediately scores. A fairly even round finishes with a 4-3 score to Jeffries.
A good right from Jeffries lands in the opening seconds of the final round, but he holds on momentarily when Alvarez lands a great uppercut. It's 5-4 to Jeffries and he just needs to keep out of trouble for the last half minute, but Alvarez scores again and it's a messy end with a score of 5 all.
The decider is "count-back", taking the judge's individual scores and discounting the best and worst. Jeffries is delighted when he is announced as the winner and goes through to the quarter-finals. More...
By Alejandro Tostado August 16th, 2008 All Boxing Results
The Cuban boxing team has been living up to it's reputation as the world's top amateur team as it continues to shred it's competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Today at Worker's Gymnasium, the victory train rolled on as Middleweight Emilio Correa hammered out an 18-4 victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko of the Ukraine, light flyweight Yampier Hernandez dominated Ukraine's Georgiy Chygayev 21-3 and flyweight Andris Lafitta defeated Great Britain's Khalid Yafai on points 9-3.
It was the same story yesterday but featherweight Idel Torriente did have a tougher time as he had his hands full with Mongolia's Enkhzorig Zorigtbaatar before pulling out a 10-9 win.
Bantamweight Yankiel Leon outpointed Kazakhstan's Kanat Abutalipov by a score of 10-3 while lightweight Yordenis Ugas closed out Friday's competitions for Cuba by outboxing Domenico Valentino of Italy 10-2. More...
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...
Team Australia's last hope in boxing at the 2008 Olympics walked into a Russian buzzsaw yesterday as Anthony Little was put out of the games by Alexey Tishchenko.
The Perth lightweight was outclassed from the start by the 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist at super featherweight but things got a whole lot worse for Little when he was nailed flush by a right hand that impaired his vision for the rest of the way.
Little's power game was no match for Tischenko's finely honed skill and the man that many are tipping to win the Beijing Gold Medal cruised to an 11-3 victory after four rounds.
Australia's Cinderella hopes are crushed as all of the fighters from Down Under have been defeated with the 27 year old Little the only one to have made it into the second round of competition.
The U.S. boxing team had a strong finish on Wednesday, August 13, 2008, ending the opening round bouts with both their heavyweight and light flyweight fighters moving into the next round of competition.
The first victory came from the raw and inexperienced hands of 6’9” Deontay Wilder from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who has less than three years experience in boxing. Wilder was fortunate to get a great draw facing 6’2” Abdelaziz Touilbini from Algeria .
During the first round, Touilbini scored a point early in the bout while Wilder was tentative, throwing only one punch at a time. Wilder was clearly tight and was down 2-0 at the end of the round. More...
American promoter Don King was given extraordinary access today by Chinese officials who allowed him to tour hard-hit areas of May’s major earthquake near the Sichuan Province’s capital city of Chengdu. More...
On Tuesday, August 12, 2008, the U.S. boxing team suffered a devastating blow when top Gold Medal hopeful Rau’shee Warren lost in his first elimination bout to Korea’s Oksung Lee. Warren was the first U.S. boxer since Davey Lee Armstrong in 1972 and 1976 to compete in two Olympic Games.
Warren came into the Beijing Olympics as the current flyweight world champion and was the favorite to win the division. He entered the ring with a picture of his eight month-old son taped to his shoes, similar to when Sugar Ray Leonard taped a picture of his infant son to his shoes in the 1976 Olympics.
But unfortunately for Warren and the U.S., his outcome was not the same as Leonard’s.
The southpaw Warren’s hand speed and quickness were evident in the first round as he got out to an early two point lead. Warren, unconventionally, was able to jump in and score effectively against Lee, who didn’t take long to pinpoint the timing of Warren to score his own points. The first round ended with the score 2-2.
The second round was filled with back and forth action. Every time that Warren would score a point to take the lead, Lee would score as well, keeping the bout a tie 6-6 at the end of round two.
At the start of the third round, both fighters came out swinging with aggressive exchanges, but no clean punches registered a point for either fighter. Warren landed a clean left, to which the Korean fighter was credited a point. More...
At the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, there was a parade of athletes from the different countries. They stood together, walking side by side.
In the Canadian delegation however, there was one man that walked alone. Adam Trupish walked among his countrymen and he saluted the crowd with enthusiasm, but this man walked alone. You see, Adam Trupish is the only Canadian boxer to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
On Sunday, August 9, he was defeated by an opponent from Kazakhstan and that was the end for the Canadian dream of a medal in the boxing discipline.
For Trupish, this was his second Olympic appearance and after it was all over, he spoke to reporters. In his comments, Turpish talked about the sorry state that the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association was in.
He spoke about how he had to put himself in debt in order to compete in these games. He even went as far as saying that if the problem with Canadian boxing isnʼt assessed soon, there might be no boxing athletes from Canada in the London Olympics.
In the past six Olympics, Canada has sent 53 boxers to compete in the games. Athletes such as Raymond Downey, David Defiagbon and we canʼt forget Lennox Lewis, have all brought home medals in this discipline.
So why did Canada only send one boxer to Beijing? More...
Yesterday, Captain of the British boxing squad, David Price, caused the shock of the competition so far by stopping Russian favourite Islam Timurziev in the second frame of their first round super heavyweight contest.
Prior to the fight, Price - the eldest of the team - said how ʼhonouredʼ he was to have been chosen as Captain by the other team members and although he was ʽconfident of his own abilitiesʼ - knew that he was up against the man rated as ʽnumber one in the worldʼ.
As he entered the ring at the Workers Stadium, Beijing, the six feet eight inch Liverpudlian stepped over the top rope and into the ring!
After a steady round one, Timurziev was ahead by 2-0, but with a couple of shots from Price going un-scored.
But a right from Price in the opening seconds of the second frame forces an 8 count after the Russian goes to one knee. Moments later, Timurziev drops to his knee again after a left shot through the middle from Price.
Again, the referee administers the 8 count, but as he gets to 8, the Russian doesnʼt look to be focussed and the referee calls off the contest to the disbelief of the ʽfavouriteʼ.
David Price is jubilant, having beaten the man expected to win Gold in Beijing.
Today, Billy Joe Saunders and Bradley Saunders have their second round contests with light heavyweight Tony Jeffries fighting for the first time in this competition.
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...
Yesterday at Worker's Gymnasium in Beijing, Australian super heavyweight Dan Behan suffered a referee stoppage at 0:49 of the first round as the team from Down Under has now completed their initial round of competition.
It's been a withering frame as every one of Team Australia's boxers, with the exception of one, has been ushered out of these Olympic Games.
Yesterday, Kazakhstan's Ruslan Myrsatayev went after Behan from the start and his heavy shelling strategy had an almost immediate effect as the Gladstone man was sent reeling from big shots, forcing a referee stoppage at 0:49 of the first round.
This leaves one man to carry the hopes and dreams of a nation on his shoulders but lightweight Anthony Little of Team Australia has the difficult job of facing the 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist at super featherweight, Russia's Alexey Tishchenko on Friday as the second round of competition commences.
Tishchenko is favored to win gold at Beijing at lightweight but Little's rough and tough style could put the Siberian on his heels if he can smother Tishchenko's offense with an inside attack.
Legendary promoter Don King held a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday where he congratulated China and the Chinese people on their tremendous launch of the first Olympic Games staged in the most populous country on earth while launching a boxing promotion of his own, scheduled for November 7 in the largest city in Sichuan Province, Chengdu. More...
Billy Joe and Bradley Sauders move into second round of competition
After a fantastic 3 out of 3 for British boxers in Beijing, sadly, the team suffered itʼs first defeat yesterday when bantamweight Joe Murray lost out to Yu Gu of China.
Murray - brother of John, recently crowned British Lightweight Champion, had a tough four rounds against the home-boy. It was a messy contest from the start with both boxers being told to ʽclean it upʼ.
When Murray ended round one being 3-0 down, I hoped it was just a case of ʽnot settling inʼ yet. But, the Chinese fighter continued to notch up the points. It wasnʼt great boxing by Murray, but the scoring system didnʼt help matters as Murray could be seen landing shots that werenʼt counted.
The controversial points win of 17-7 gave Gu a second-round place and a disappointed Murray goes out of the competition.
Previously, middleweight James DeGale secured the first win for the Great Britain Team on Saturday followed by team-mates welterweight Billy Joe Saunders and light welterweight Bradley Saunders.
Billy Joe gave a fantastic display of boxing when he faced World Bronze Medallist Adem Kilicci, of Turkey. Winning every round - Saunders was impressive, whipping out the right then the left - moving quickly out of the way when his Turkish opponent threw a punch. More...
Worker's Gymnasium continues to represent hostile territory for Team Australia as three more boxers from Down Under have been defeated in Beijing.
On Tuesday, 17 year old flyweight Stephen Sutherland of Melbourne had difficulty scoring points against Tunisian veteran Walid Charif and was beaten 14-2. As with the defeat of boxer Todd Kidd earlier this week, Team Australia coaches have questioned what they see as blatant one-sided scoring by the Olympic judging.
Also yesterday, bantamweight Luke Boyd of Sydney gave a good performance but came up short on a score of 18-8 to Botswana's Khumiso Ikgopoleng.
Today in Beijing, the difficulties continued for Team Australia as the man considered the best hope to medal was turned back.
Melbourne heavyweight Brad Pitt put up a good fight but couldn't get past the efforts of Morocco's Mohammed Arjaoui, losing 11-6 after four rounds.
Only super heavyweight Dan Behan has yet to compete at the games as the Gladstone based boxer will meet Kazakhstan's Ruslan Myrsatayev later today and will hopefully join team mate Anthony Little in staying alive for the second round.
Last Saturday, August 9, 2008, middleweight Shawn Estrada got the U.S. boxing team off to a great start, winning his preliminary bout against Ezequiel Maderna of Argentina by a final score of 10-2. Estrada could not have asked for a better draw, having previously beat Maderna at the Americas Qualifier in Guatemala by a score of 4-1 earlier this year.
Estrada used the ring well boxing to an early lead of 7-1 at the end of round two. The taller Maderna was unable to use his height advantage and struggled to score points.
Round three was a low scoring round with each fighter gaining only one point. Estrada smothered himself on the inside, which prevented him from throwing clean punches. He scored two additional points in the fourth round and gave the U.S. boxing team their first win, advancing to the Round of 16 where he will face James DeGale of Great Britian.
On the second day of Olympic boxing, the light welterweight and welterweight fighters took center stage and the U.S. had mixed results, going one and one.
The eighteen year-old U.S. light welterweight Javier Molina faced off against tough twenty-five year-old Boris Georgiev of Bulgaria, who had won a Bronze Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Molina gave Georgiev some early opportunities, leaving his head open by bouncing his left hand from his chest to his leg, creating openings for the Bulgarian, which he capitalized on by ending the first round with a 6-0 lead. More...
Legendary promoter Don King arrived in Beijing, China, yesterday and will be holding a press conference there today, Wednesday, August 13, where he will announce his plans to promote a boxing event in Chengdu, China. The boxing card will be staged in November and is planned to be presented at the Chengdu National Stadium.
After the Beijing press conference, the China Boxing Association invited King to attend Olympic boxing. More...
