2008 Olympic Boxing Results, Day Seven (Part One)

By Jake Donovan

Team USA’s lone participant of Friday, featherweight Raynell Williams wasn’t scheduled to appear until later in the evening. Time was occupied by 24 other boxers, with victories by two more members of Team China serving as bookends for Friday afternoon’s portion of the competition at the Worker’s Indoor Arena in Beijing.

Li Yang never trailed in his 6-5 Round of 16 match against Luis Enrique Polozo of Ecuador. The Chinese featherweight got on board 15 seconds into the fight, landing a flush right hand upstairs to draw a rise of the hometown crowd. Polozo was down 2-0 early, but rallied back well enough to even up the score by rounds end.

It would be the last time he wouldn’t trail in the fight.

Yang added two points in each of the second and third rounds, with his money punch being the Chinese body shot. Technique-wise, it’s the same as any other body shot, but differs from other nations in that it’s rewarded by the judges only when thrown by a member of Team China.

Up 6-3 heading into the final frame, Yang opted to get an early jump on the track and field squad for the 2012 Olympics. When he wasn’t running in the final round, it’s because he was clinging on for dear life. Polozo danced as hard as he could, tacking on two points inside of a minute, before having to spend the rest of the round and fight peeling off of him China’s answer to John Ruiz.

To Yang’s credit, fighters are free to do as much as will be tolerated by the referee. In this case, Yang was permitted to clinch his way through the final 20 seconds of the fight without so much as a warning. The referee finally made an appearance, but only to extend his hand to inform the fighters that the final bell had rung.

The fight ended with Yang celebrating in one corner, while Polozo was disgusted to the point of removing his mouthpiece and kicking it into the crowd, realizing his Olympic dream was over.

Yang’s lives on, though he might not be singing the same tune come Sunday. His quarterfinals bout comes against Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine, who put on a clinic with his 13-1 win over Bahordirjon Sooltonov of Uzbekistan.

To give an idea of how dominant was Lomachenko’s performance, Sooltonov was a 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, yet was made to look like a sparring partner in this contest. This, on the heels of taking a 14-7 win in the opening round over Alberti Selimov of Russia, against whom he lost in the World Amateur Championships a year prior.

Lomachenko was up 9-0 in this Round of 16 bout before Sooltonov finally got on board midway through the third round. It was smooth sailing from there, with the Ukrainian scoring the bout’s final four points including a late knockdown from a counter left hand to sail through to the quarterfinals.

There was little cruising in the other two featherweight bouts of the afternoon. Abdelkader Chadi of Algeria advances after outlasting Thailand’s Sailom Adi 7-6. He will next face Yakup Kiliç of Turkey, who turned back the challenge of Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu by a 12-9 verdict.

The opening bout of the lightweight Round of 16 saw an interesting match between two fighters who received an opening round bye.

Pichai Sayota of Thailand is the last known amateur to defeat odds-on Olympic lightweight favorite and reigning Gold medalist Aleksei Tishchenko of Russia, an upset that occurred in the King’s Cup this past April. He won’t get a chance to repeat, as he was ousted by Sub-Baik Jong of Korea by a 10-4 margin.

Jong is now at the same stage of the Olympics as his 2004 run, when he was eliminated by Amir Khan in the Quarterfinals. He next faces Hrachik Javakhyan of Armenia, who delivered the lone shutout of the afternoon with a 12-0 drubbing of Nigeria’s Rasheed Lawal.

Darley Perez of Colombia never trailed in his Round of 16 match with Asylbek Talasbaev of Kyrgyzstan, jumping out to an early lead and remaining in his control en route to a 15-4 win.

The million-dollar question now is how much of that he can bring to the Quarterfinals. Awaiting him is the man hailed by many as pound-for-pound the best amateur fighter in the world. That would be none other than Russian lightweight Alexei Tishchenko, who had his way with Australian southpaw Anthony Little to the tune of an 11-3 win, keeping alive his pursuit of back-to-back Gold medals in the process.

Tishchenko led 3-0 after the opening round, and it would only get wise as the fight wore on for Little, a two-time Olympian. The lead was 6-0 before Little finally got on board, landing a left to the body and a right hook upstairs to end the second round only trailing by five.

That lead would be doubled up by the end of the third, with Tishchenko adding five more points to his tally. A 4-2 fourth and final round would increase the final margin to 11 and extend his Olympic winning streak to seven.

For Little, it’s déjà vu all over again as he is once again eliminated from the second round of the Olympics at the hands of a fighter from Mother Russia. His 2004 Olympic run ended with a knockout loss to eventual Bronze medalist Murat Khruchav.

Italy’s Domenico Valentino made it to the quarterfinals in the 2004 Games, but goes home one round earlier this time around after dropping a 10-2 verdict to Yordenis Ugas of Cuba. Ugas scored the bout’s final six points, including a second round knockdown, to advance to the quarterfinals. He next meets Georgian Popescu of Romania, who employed a picture-perfect stick and move game plan in easily taking a 14-4 win over Mexico’s Francisco Vargas.

Daouda Sow of France overcame a 6-5 deficit early in the third to eventually surge past Puero Rican left hooker Jose Pedraza with a 13-9 win. It should be considered a good thing, only it draws him a dance in the Quarterfinals with China’s Hu Qing, who ended an afternoon of Olympic boxing on a high note in defeating 19-year old Merey Akshalov of Kazakhstan, 11-7.

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:

Part One - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=15346