Olympic Boxing: Quarterfinals End (51/75KG)
Posted by Alan Conceicao on August 21st, 2008
Entering the Olympics, the one truly uncertain thing was the Cuban national team. After numerous attempted and successful defections by top fighters, it looked as if their grip on the world scene perhaps was coming to a close. That was the idea, anyways. Reality has returned and returned hard, and after the last qualifiers for the medal rounds were completed, Cuba dominance could hardly be denied.
51KG:
There were no surprises as every favored fighter took his fight, often with a fair amount of ease. McWilliams Arroyo of Puerto Rico was no match for Cuban Andry Lafitta as he was regularly hit with counters. Lafitta cruised to a 11-2 victory. His opponent in the semis, Russian Georgy Balakshin, had a markedly tougher fight. The unorthodox Jitender Kumar of India kept the fight very close through 3, but Balakshin’s experience was just too much for the Indian fighter.
The opposite bracket saw a bout where the cornermen were more the story than the fighters. Vincenzo Picardi has at least guaranteed matching his World Championships performance by beating Tunisa’s Walid Cherif. However, Cherif’s cornermen were tossed late in the bout after screaming at the judges for a lack of scoring blows. Somjit Jongjohor continues to be the favorite among the flyweights, and beat Tajikistan’s Anvar Yunusov 8-1. That bout was not particularly enthralling either: Jongjohor’s wide stance and strange counter punching style makes for lots of holding. The takedowns, however illegal, were about the most damaging blows of the bout.
75KG:
What the flyweights lacked in surprises, the middleweights made up for. Alfonso Blanco of Venezuela won a silver in Chicago, but will leave Beijing with nothing. Darren Sutherland’s 11-1 victory guarantees a third medal for Ireland, far beyond expectations. The bout itself was an entertaining offensive one, but marred by a lack of points for both men, especially Blanco. His opponent is James DeGale, the ever improving Brit, who defeated former gold medalist and Val Barker winner Artayev 8-3. Artayev’s plan was totally nullified by DeGale’s superior handspeed and excellent right hand counters.
On the other end of the bracket, a mismatch of sorts seems to be looming. Vijender Kumar used a weak draw to pull himself into India’s first medal, however he is stuck fighting Emilio Correa of Cuba (pictured above). Correa’s defensive skills lend him to easily pounding on a hapless Indian opponent, but it shouldn’t be ignored exactly how important Kumar’s win is to India. India has never won a medal in boxing prior and is infamous for prototypically poor results in any athletic international competition outside of cricket, in spite of their massive population base.
COMING SOON: The news story no one is talking about in boxing that might just revolutionize combat sports as a whole.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Cuba has always been good at the olympics.