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

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.

But it was a difficult win for the Frenchman, Gold Medal winner at the 2007 European Union Championships, as the heavily tattooed Fleming continually pressed the action only to lose 13-9.

Team Australia still has several boxers to have their first round matches as bantamweight Luke Boyd squares off with Botswana’s Khumiso Ikgopoleng while flyweight Stephen Sutherland goes up against Walid Cherif of Tunisia on Tuesday.

Wednesday’s bouts will feature super heavyweight Dan Beahan facing Kazakhstan’s Ruslan Myrsatayev and heavyweight Brad Bitt meets Moroccan opponent Mohammed Arjaoui.