By Jake Donovan

The Round of 16 competition is history, and so too is Luis Yanez after being eliminated by Serdamba Purevdor of Mongolia in an 8-7 heartbreaker, Saturday evening in Beijing, China. Yanez’ exit leaves Team Turmoil down to two fighters entering the quarterfinals.

Yanez was completely out of character in the opening round, measuring up Purevdor in almost refusing to let his hands go. Purevdor jumped out to an early lead and more importantly countered whenever Yanez managed to land a scoring blow.

Coach Dan Campbell gave his fighter an earful in between rounds, demanding that the Texan start throwing punches in bunches if he has any designs on taking home Olympic hardware. Yanez took heed to the advice, but only seemed to last about 20 seconds before falling back into a posing contest.

It was the same speech directed at Yanez in between rounds, now down 4-2 with only two rounds to go. Yanez finally woke up in the third, unloading in the first thirty seconds to rack up four quick points to take his first lead of the fight. Action slowed midway through the round, with both fighters back to pawing at one another. Yanez attempted to land a right hook but got caught with a counter left to leave the third round tied 6-6.

The message was clear heading into the final round – us against the world. “Your guy can get away with throwing one at a time,” insisted Coach Campbell. “We can’t.”

Campbell’s advice was dead on. If only student paid attention to teacher.

Yanez’ only combinations came in flicking jabs thrown from way outside. With minimal fear of incoming, Purevdor was able to work his way inside, landing a straight left to pull ahead 7-6 before pitching forward from momentum resulting in a tackle and brief time out.

The lead would prove to be insurmountable for the American southpaw. Yanez pawed with a jab late in the round, leaving himself open for a counter right hook to fall behind 8-6. He managed a point with about 15 seconds left to pull within one, but Purevdor had the wherewithal to move and tie up his foe as time wound down.

The fight ended, though Yanez seemed unaware that his Olympic tour was over until the official decision was announced to confirm what everyone else already knew.

It still hadn’t quite sunken in for Yanez when he spoke afterward.

“They told me it was tied up in the first round, so I tried to maintain that closeness,” said Yanez, apparently missing the part when Campbell implored his fighter to let his hands go. “I tried to box and looked sharp.”

As has been the case in every other close fight, scoring was questioned by the losing fighter.

“I don’t think he should’ve got those points in the last round. One point yes, but not those other points.”

A case could be made that Purevdor’s last scoring point was the type of glancing blow that has went virtually ignored by the judges thus far in the 2008 Games. But it still would’ve come down to a tiebreaker, in which the Mongolian still would’ve most likely taken victory.

Naturally, Yanez saw things otherwise.

“This is Olympic boxing, you’re not trying to knock guys out. I was trying to use my speed. I was tied up in the third round, and tried to box.”

Coach Dan Campbell didn’t quite see things the same way.

“We ranted and raved and did everything we could do to get him to let his hands go. A lot of these guys stay in touch with home and get instructions from someone other than us. If they don’t listen to us and revert back to what they heard from what they heard back home, then we know that they’re listening to someone else.”

The last line was perhaps a parting shot at Yanez, with whom he had a well-documented dispute. Yanez was one of a handful of Team USA fighters who didn’t agree with Campbell’s method of training. A breakdown in communication during a three-week absence from the team’s training camp in Colorado Springs initially resulted in Yanez’ removal from the squad, before repeated appeals finally ruled in his favor to regain entry.

It turned out to be a better fight than his final appearance in the 2008 Olympics, which has hardly been time capsule material for Team USA. With only two members remaining heading into the quarterfinals, the United States has now produced its worst start to this point in the competition for as long as they’ve participated in the Olympics.

Just a little bit better was Purevdor, who next faces Thai light flyweight Amnat Ruenroeng in the quarterfinals.

Ruenroeng comes with a fascinating backdrop, as he was featured among Time Magazines’s “100 Athletes to Watch” section. A former drug addict who was pulled out of school in the second-grade, Ruenroeng was facing a 15-year prison sentence for armed robbery when he elected to take up boxing to pass time. He wound up winning the national title in 2007, leading to his early release from what was his third jail stint.

One year later, he qualified for the Thai Olympic boxing squad and now finds himself one win away from medaling. He made it the quarterfinals after turning away the challenge of Dominican light flyweight Winston Mendez-Montero, 7-3.

The high scoring totals were saved for the bottom of the light flyweight bracket. Yampier Hernandez of Cuba followed up a 12-1 blowout in round one with a 21-3 walkover in the round of 16 against Ukraine’s Georgiy Chygayev.

Hernandez became the ninth member of Team Cuba to advance to the quarterfinals. His next challenge comes against Paulo Carvalho of Brazil, who earned his keep with a 21-13 win over Ghanaian light flyweight Manyo Plange.

While high contact was featured in the bottom half bracket, it was high drama in the top half. Heavily favored home country light flyweight Zou Shiming never led in his fight against France’s Nordine Oubaali, but tied the fight at 3-3 with 17 seconds left to force a countback verdict. That would go to Shiming, to the delight of the crowd but perhaps with a raised eyebrow or two among more objective observers.

Shiming saves face in barely surviving the round of the 16, but will have to bring his absolute best if he is to remain the odds-on favorite to capture Olympic Gold. The road doesn’t get any easier, as awaiting him in the quarterfinals is Kazakhstan’s Birzhan Zhakypov, who handled Armenian light flyweight Hovhannes Danielyan by score of 13-7.

Equally as dubious as Shiming’s close call was Poland’s Lukasz Maszczyk beating Namibia’s Japhet Uutoni by virtue of double-tiebreaker.

Maszczyk was awarded a split decision win after a 5-5 tie went unsettled in the countback, as both fighters were determined to have landed an equal amount of quality blows.

One that went sorely missed on the scorecards came in the opening round, which could’ve prevented the drawn out ending. Maszczyk scored a knockdown midway through the first, yet somehow still remained behind 1-0. He’d later catch up, with the lead flip-flopping several times throughout the contest before ending in a 5-5 tie.

A quick announcement of a tie in the countback tally led to a long delay, with both fighters standing in center ring for upwards of two minutes while waiting on five judges to decide who they felt deserved to win. It would finally be announced in favor of Maszczyk, who meets Ireland’s Paddy Barnes in the quarterfinals.

Barnes received an opening round bye, but showed no signs of ring rust, looking sharp in his 14-8 win over Jose Luis Meza of Ecuador.

Falling behind on your Olympic boxing intake? Catch up by clicking on the following link for the complete archive of Boxingscene.com’s unmatched Olympic coverage:

BOXINGSCENE.COM 2008 OLYMPIC BOXING CATALOG

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