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...

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...

© Jim Everett / Saddo Boxing

The veteran of the U.S. Olympic boxing team, Rau’shee Warren is the only member of this year's squad that was also on the 2004 team in Athens, Greece. In 2004, Warren was not only the youngest member of the boxing team but also the youngest male athlete on the U.S. team. During the Athens Olympic Games, Warren lost in the first round draw to one of the top favorites, Zou Shiming of China, who went on to win the Bronze Medal.

Unlike most of the 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing team, Warren decided not to turn professional so he could fulfill his dream of putting an Olympic Gold Medal around his mother, Paulette’s neck. Since the 2004 Olympics, Warren has stayed busy, winning the U.S. Championships three years in a row (2005-2007), the 2004 World Championships as a Bronze Medallist and won the 2007 World Championships.

Warren is the first U.S. boxer since Davey Lee Armstrong in 1972 and 1976 to compete in two Olympic Games and is a top favorite to win gold in the flyweight division. More...