(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – Team USA suffered its first loss of the 2011 World Championships on Friday as light welterweight Jamel Herring (Coram, N.Y./Camp Lejeune, N.C.) dropped his first round bout to China’s Qing Hu in Baku.
Herring was the sixth U.S. boxer to take the ring in Azerbaijan, and was competing in his first-ever AIBA World Championships. The U.S. Marine kept the bout close through the early going, trailing by a 4-1 margin after the first round. Yet Hu, a 2008 Olympian, pulled away in the second, moving out to a 13-3 advantage with only round remaining. Herring couldn’t dent his deficit in the final round and lost a 20-5 final decision. The loss eliminates Herring from the 2011 World Championships.
Herring took gold in the jam-packed light welterweight division at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Men’s Boxing in Mobile earlier this year to earn a berth on the World Championships squad. Following his loss, the light welterweight division spot will be open at the 2012 USA Boxing National Championships, and the winner of that event will represent the United States at the second and final international Olympic qualifying tournament.
Two American boxers will look to start a new U.S. winning streak on Saturday on the final day of first round competition in Baku. Lightweight Jose Ramirez (Avenal, Calif.) and middleweight Jesse Hart (Philadelphia, Pa.) will face off with Armenia’s Vladimir Sarukhanyan and Qatar’s Hzan Nabah respectively on Saturday. Ramirez will compete in the 2 p.m. session (5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT) and Hart will box in the 5:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT) session. As flyweight Rau’shee Warren (Cincinnati, Ohio) and super heavyweight Lenroy “Cam” Thompson (Lenexa, Kansas) both received first round byes, they will open competition on Sunday.
USA Boxing National Coach Joe Zanders (Long Beach, Calif.), coaches Ronald Simms (Stafford, Va.) and Manny Robles (Los Angeles, Calif.), technical advisor Ken Porter (Akron, Ohio), and Team Manager Ken Buffington (Marshalltown, Iowa) are leading the United States team in Baku.
The 2011 World Championships are the first international qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the light flyweight through light heavyweight boxers must place in top ten to qualify for London while the heavyweight and super heavyweight competitors need to place in the top six.
For the full brackets for all 10 weight classes and the most up-to-date results, go to http://www.aiba.org/en-US/2011/2011WorldBoxingChampionships.aspx. AIBA will show live scoring on its website, www.aiba.org throughout the tournament and will start webcasting all the bouts on October 4 at www.aibaboxing.tv. For more information on Team USA, go to www.usaboxing.org. USA Boxing will tweet all the American results as they happen @usaboxing.
The first AIBA Men’s World Championships were held in 1974 in Havana, Cuba. The event, which consistently showcases the best boxers in the world, is held every two years.
U.S. Results
141 lbs: Qing Hu, CHN, dec. Jamel Herring, Coram, N.Y./Camp Lejeune, N.C./USA, 20-5
