By Jake Donovan

 

East Los Angeles middleweight (165 lb/75 kg) Shawn Estrada scored the first win of the 2008 Summer Olympics for Team USA with a 10-2 points win over Ezequil Osvaldo Maderna of Argentina in the Preliminary round of 32 in Beijing, China.

 

Estrada, 23, sprinted out to an early lead, as he was up 3-0 less than a minute into the bout. He was up 7-0 before Maderna scored his first point. It didn’t come until midway through the second round, a straight right hand from the outside after coming up short and wide with the majority of his punches to that point.

 

With a third round marred by excessive clinching and very little clean punching. The 6’1” Estrada danced on his toes and boxed from the outside in the fourth and final round. The strategy worked, scoring two points early and spending the rest of the frame fighting behind a peek-a-boo defense as Maderna was unable to land another clean shot.

 

The bout was a rematch to their qualifying bout earlier this year, also won by Estrada though in a match that featured even less contact than Saturday’s return go.

 

“It was a big advantage, but he came on a little harder this time,” said Estrada of drawing the familiar foe for his opening round match. “I kept my composure to finish out the rounds.”

 

With the win, Estrada advances to the round of 16. He draws a less favorable matchup against slick Great Britain southpaw James Degale, who easily handled Mohamad Hikal of Egypt.

 

The switch-hitting Degale, who owns an amateur win over current unbeaten pro middleweight prospect Craig McEwan, fell behind early, down 3-2 midway through the opening round, but scored 11 straight points to cruise to victory by a 13-4 margin.

 

The scoring blows came from a variety of punches, including jabs and straight rights upstairs and looping right hands to the body while constantly flipping back and forth between orthodox and southpaw stance.

 

Estrada and Degale will square off Saturday, August 16 in the final bout of their upper bracket.

 

Team USA didn’t produce a qualifying member for the light heavyweight bracket (178 lb/81 kg), a weight class that provided the first stoppage of the competition as well as the most lopsided contest.

 

Ghanaian light heavyweight Bastie Samir scored a third round stoppage over Dauda Izobo of Nigeria in a strangely scored contest. The two African fighters let the leather fly early and often, but neither managed to register many points with the judges.

 

Samir was down 3-0 before sending Izobo to the canvas with a corker of a left hook midway through the second round. It would be the first of three official knockdowns credited to Samir before the bout was waved off at 1:28 of round three.

 

The win advances Samir to the light heavyweight round of 16, where he faces banger Washington Silva of Brazil, who was successful in his opening round bid with a 6-2 win over Azea Augustama.

 

At age 30, Silva is one of the older boxers in the Games, as well as among a handful of fighters returning from the 2004 Olympics. He lost in the opening round of the ’04 Games.

 

Moments after the first stoppage of the 2008 Games was in the books, Ireland’s Kenneth Egan produced the afternoon’s largest margin of victory with a 22-2 wipeout over Julius Jackson of the Virgin Islands.

 

The bout was a rematch to their meeting in the World Amateur Boxing Championships last October in Chicago. Egan dominated that bout, and did the same Saturday afternoon, as the southpaw was way too much for Jackson, the 21-year old son of former two-division world champion Julian Jackson.

 

Julius showed flashes of his father’s gifted power, sending Egan to the canvas in the second with a right hand. The knockdown was waved off, however, as the referee ruled it a slip. It was one of only two scoring moments enjoyed by Jackson, as Egan piled up the points including an 8-point third round that nearly drew a stoppage.

 

Egan advances to the round of 16, drawing Baram Muzaffer of Turkey, who won his opening round bout with an 8-3 decision win over Aziz Ali of Kenya.

 

While Julius bows out, the Olympic dream isn’t quite yet dead for the Jackson family. Younger brother John Jackson is a participant in the welterweight division (151 lb/69 kg), which along with the junior welterweight division (139 lb/65 kg) opens competition Sunday afternoon.

 

As to be expected, the crowd came alive for Zhang Xioping, the first member of Team China to step foot into the ring for the 2008 Summer Games. Four rounds later, the Chinese southpaw would register the first win for his squad with a 3-1 victory over Mourad Sahraoui of Tunisia.

 

His middleweight teammate Wang Jianzheng wasn’t as fortunate, dropping a 15-6 decision to Sergei Derevyanchenko of Ukraine.

 

Full results (as of 12:00PM EST):

 

Middleweight (165 lb/ 75 kg):

Matvey Korobov (Russia) UD-4 Naim Terbunja (Sweden), 18-6

Bakhtiyar Artayev (Kazakhstan) UD-4 Said Rachidi (Morocco), 8-2

James Degale (Great Britain) UD-4 Mohamed Hikal (Egypt), 13-4

Shawn Estrada (United States) UD-4 Ezequil Maderna (Argentina), 10-2

Andranik Hakobyan (Armenia) UD-4 Ahmed Saraku (Ghana), 14-8

Elshod Rasulov (Uzbekistan) UD-4 Jean-Michael Raymond (France), 8-2

Emilio Correa (Cuba) UD-4 Jarrod Fletcher (Australia), 17-4

Sergei Derevyanchenko (Ukraine) UD-4 Wang Jianzheng (China), 15-6

Carlos Góngora (Ecuador) UD-4 Konstantin Buga (Germany), 14-7

Georgios Gazis (Greece) UD-4 Herry Saliku Biembe (Congo), 7-2

Angkhan Chomphuphuang (Thailand) UD-4 Cho Deok-Jin (Korea), 9-3

Vijende Kumar (India) UD-4 Badou Jack (Gambia), 13-2

 

 

Light Heavyweight (178 lb, 81 kg):

Washington Silva (Brazil) UD-4 Azea Augustama (Haiti), 6-2.

Bastie Samir (Ghana) RSC-3 (1:28) Dauda Izobo (Nigeria)

Kenny Egan (Ireland) UD-4 Julius Jackson (Virgin Islands), 22-2

Baram Muzaffer (Turkey) UD-4 Aziz Ali (Kenya), 8-3

Zhang Xioping (China) UD-4 Mourad Sahraoui (Tunisia), 3-1

Artur Beterbiyev (Russia) UD-4 Kennedy Katende (Sweden), 15-3

Ramadan Yasser (Egypt) UD-4 Ramazan Magomedov (Belarus), +10, 10

Abdelhafid Benchabla (Algeria) RSC-3 (1:42) Dinesh Kumar (India)

Marijo Sivolija-Jelica (Croatia) RSC-3 (0:23) Farani Tavui (Samoa)

Dzhakhon Kurbanov (Tajikstan) UD-4 Abbs Atoev (Uzbekistán), 11-3

Carlos Negron (Puerto Rico) UD-4 Mehdi Ghorbani (Iran), 13-4

Yerkebulan Syhnaliyev (Kazakhstan) UD-4 Daugirdas Semiotas (Lithuania) 11-3

 

Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.