2008 Olympic Boxing Results, Day Seven (Part Two)

By Jake Donovan

The message was sent loud and clear to Team USA. Deontay Wilder heard it. So did Luis Yanez and Demetrius Andrade.

Apparently somebody forgot to brief featherweight Raynell Williams, who bowed out of the Olympics with a whimper after his 9-7 loss to Khedafi Djelkhir of France in the round of 16 competition Friday evening.

The US boxing squad was riding a three-fight winning streak, with each of Williams’ aforementioned teammates not just outscoring their opponents, but delivering inspiring performances in the process.

None of that carried over into the ring for Williams, who was far too content to move, clinch, pose… everything but let his hands go. The Cleveland-based southpaw was on the go from the beginning of the bout, while Djelkhir came forward, looking to cut off the ring in search of scoring opportunities.

None would come until late in the round. Djelkhir scored first, but Williams quickly evened things up with a straight left hand to leave the first round with a 1-1 tie. The second round wouldn’t be as kind, though he only has himself to blame.

Advised in between rounds to throw his uppercut and follow up with a right hook, Williams instead fought in reverse and on his bicycle, looking to set up a jab-straight left combo from the outside. Where it went wrong was Djelkhir maintaining a tight guard, uncorking right hooks and left hands anytime Williams gave him the slightest of opportunities.

A fire was lit under Williams’ butt after being advised by his corner that he was down by three. The American scored two points early in round three to pull within one, but immediately fell back behind as Djelkhir continued to enjoy success with his right hook when flipping to southpaw. Williams was back to a three-point deficit by round’s end, which resulted in his catching an earful from the corner.

“Do you want a Gold medal?” was the question asked in the corner. Williams answered “Yes,” to which his trainer replied, “You’ll have to fight like you want a Gold medal. I need you to work this entire round. You want a Gold medal? He’s standing in front of you!”

It works in the movies, anyway.

The words finally sunk in, but not after Williams fell behind 9-5 with a little over a minute left. A complete role reversal came down the stretch, with Williams planting his feet in attempting to land something real, while Djelkhir literally ran out the clock to preserve the win.

Djelkhir scores a bit of revenge with the win, avenging a 2007 defeat in the opening round of the World Championships, even if Williams believed the score told a different story than the fight itself.

“I thought I did everything right,” Williams claimed in his post-fight interview. “I thought I was scoring points but the judges felt otherwise.”

Regardless of who felt what, Williams now leaves the competition, the fourth American to be eliminated, with middleweight Shawn Estrada the team’s last hope to keep alive at least half of it’s eight-man squad heading into the quarterfinals.

One fighter heading there for sure is Djelkhir, who makes it one round further than in his 2004 tour, when he was ousted in the round of 16 by eventual bronze medalist Vitaly Tajbir.

Awaiting the Frenchman in the quarterfinals is Mexican featherweight Arturo Santos-Reyes, who had his way with Tunisia’s Alaa Shili in a 14-2 win. Santos sprinted out to a 4-1 opening round lead and never looked back.

It was the exact opposite experience for Idel Torriente of Cuba, who was forced to overcome an early 5-2 deficit to rally all the way back to eke out a 10-9 win over Zorigbaatar Enkhzorig of Mongolia in a battle of southpaw featherweights.

Torriente trailed the entire fight, but kept things close enough throughout to surge ahead when it mattered most. Down 9-8 with a minute left in the fight, Torriente came roaring back, landing an overhand left to tie the score at 9. His only lead of the fight came with 20 seconds left, when a roundhouse left landed flush on Enkhzorig’s chin. The Cuban then went mobile, circling around the ring for the remainder of the fight to squeak into the quarterfinals.

His next challenge may very well be his last, as 2004 Olympian Shahin Imranov advanced after doubling up Nokoloz Izoria of Georgia, 18-9.

Chinese bantamweight Gu Yu was the last of countrymen to fight on Friday, though his Olympic journey ended before the evening would. There were no scoring controversies in his 13-6 loss to Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova.

Yu scored the first two points of the fight, then spent the rest of the round fighting in retreat. Gojan kept coming forward, daring the hometown southpaw to stand his ground and fight back. Yu refused to oblige, instead content to play keep away while preserving his lead.

Gojan came back in the second round, scoring his first point early in the round. From there he found his key, twice landing looping lefts after switching from righty to lefty. Within the blink of an eye, a 2-0 deficit turned into a 6-3 lead with Yu quickly unraveling.

Five more points in the third would be the icing on the cake, with the 11-6 lead an insurmountable one for the Chinese southpaw.

The win for Gojan helps remove for the moment a cloud of controversy surrounding bouts involving Team China. Olympic officials were forced to answer a sea of questions earlier in the afternoon, to which they promised to look into how bouts are being scored.

Hopefully this means good news and better scoring for the remainder of the Games.

India’s Akhil Kumar enjoyed good news at the end of his match with reigning bantamweight world amateur champion Sergey Vodopyanov of Russia. Down 6-3 at one point, Kumar rallied all the way back to a 9-9 tie by fights end, then being named winner by way of countback for perhaps the biggest upset of the day, if not in all of the 2008 competition to date.

Competition was sorely missing in the other eight bantamweight bouts.

Badar-Uugan Enkbatyn of Mongolia put Team Ireland within one fight of being ousted from the 2008 Games altogether, easily taking a 9-2 win over John Joe Nevin. His quarterfinal opponent was even more dominant, as Khumiso Ikgopoleng of Botswana stopped Morocco’s Hiham Mesbani 0:32 into the fourth and final round of their contest.

Team Cuba advances its sixth member into the quarterfinals, after Yankiel Leon cruised past Kazakhstan’s Kanat Abutalipov with a 12-3 win. He next faces 2004 Olympic silver medalist Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand, who took a 12-1 win over Italy’s Vittorio Parrinello.

Hector Mazanilla of Brazil has scored 30 points in his first two Olympic bouts of 2008, including a 17-6 drubbing of South Korea’s Han Soon Chul. It’s still three less points than the two-round total of 30-year old Bruno Julie of Mauritius, who scores his second straight blowout with a 16-4 rout of Uzbekistan’s Khurshid Tadjibayev.

Light flyweight, flyweight and middleweight action are on tap for Saturday, which closes out the Round of 16 for all weight classes.

Falling behind on your Olympic boxing intake? Check out Boxingscene.com’s complete coverage of the 2008 Games:

Day One Competition:

https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15327

Round One Report Card – Shawn Estrada: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15332

Day Two Competition:

Part One - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15336

Part Two - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15339

Scoreboard - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15337

Rd 1 Report Card – Javier Molina: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15341

Rd 1 Report Card – Demetrius Andrade: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15348

Day Three Competition: