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

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.

When asked if he felt it was important to get out to an early points lead, Williams responded, “It’s important to pick up a lead in the first two rounds and then in third and fourth they will try to come at you because they need the points, so you can just counter off them and keep moving when they come in wild.”

The U.S. featherweight moves to the Round of 16 where he will face Khedafi Djelkhir of France .

In the lightweight division, Sadam Ali of Brooklyn, New York, struggled against Georgian Popescu of Romania.

The nineteen year old from the U.S. came out jabbing in the first round against the Romanian southpaw. Ali landed rights and counter lefts, but none registered any points; at least three left hooks landed but did not score. What should have been a higher scoring round in Ali’s favor ended up being 3-2 for Popescu at the end of the first round.

Ali was much more aggressive in round two, moving in on his opponent. He stopped boxing completely which gave Popescu the advantage by Ali walking into shots as he tried to move in without throwing his jab.

It appeared that Ali went into the second round feeling he needed to be more aggressive as he was down a point, but it was his boxing style in the first round that he was more effective against Popescu.

The fight became more physical with Popescu holding and pushing on a few occasions. The Romanian continued to score points on Ali, as he rushed in, increasing his lead to 9-3 at the end of round two.

During the third round, the head gear of Popescu was loosened during a clinch and then knocked off his head by a three punch combination by Ali, none of which registered a point.

When the action continued, Ali, still not boxing, completely abandoned his jab and was throwing lead rights which Popescu countered with a left that tagged Ali. It was another big round for Popescu, who increased his lead to 16-5.

Ali went scoreless in the last round, still not boxing and just throwing lead rights that were not landing, while Popescu scored by countering with his left.

Popescu won by a final sore of 20-5.