(CHICAGO, ILL.) – Welterweight Demetrius Andrade (Providence, R.I.) grabbed his second victory of the 2007 World Championships, winning a 19-3 decision over Dmitrijs Sostaks of Latvia. Lightweight Sadam Ali (Brooklyn, N.Y.) suffered the second loss for the U.S. team, dropping a 20-16 decision to Hrachik Javakhyan of Armenia in second round action on Sunday at the 2007 AIBA World Championships in Chicago, Ill. Light flyweight Luis Yanez (Duncanville, Texas) finally got the opportunity to walk to the ring for his first bout at the 2007 World Championships. Yet that is the only work out that Yanez would get as his opponent, Simanga Shiba of Swaziland, did not report to the ring for their second round contest. Shiba made weight earlier in the morning but didn’t appear at the venue for the bout.
It was the second consecutive walkover in the light flyweight division, setting up a bout with Australia’s Stephen Sutherland in third round action. Yanez is familiar with Sutherland, having sparred with him during Australia’s visit to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs
The first two rounds of Andrade’s bout with Sostaks were close with Andrade finding opening with straight shots despite Sostaks awkward movement and he held a two-point lead after the opening two minutes. Each boxer added only one point to their total in a highly defensive second round, but the tempo changed in the third. Andrade opened the round by landing three consecutive straight left hands to Sostaks’ body, and found his rhythm and opening up with combinations. After a referee took a point from Sostaks for pushing Andrade to the ground, the American boxer enjoyed a 13-2 lead after three. The fourth round told a similar tale with Andrade dictating the pace and slipping Sostaks’ shot and he earned a 19-3 final decision to advance to third round action. He will face Belarus’ Magomed Nurudinov in quarterfinal action for an Olympic berth on Wednesday, October 31.
“I was just feeling him out and getting to know his reach because he was a long guy. I was just trying to find my distance and find my distance for countering as well. In the third round, I figured it out,” Andrade said. “My straight left to the body was working perfect. I threw it, it was landing and I got a point for it so that’s what I went to.”
Ali fell behind early in the first round and although he managed to stay close, couldn’t gain control of the lead throughout the bout. Although Javakhyan moved out a four-point lead in the first, Ali chipped away late in the round to pull within two by the end of the two-minute period. Ali looked to mount a comeback in the second, but seemed to surrender a point from every scoring blow that he landed. He trailed by an 11-8 margin at the midway mark of the four-round contest. The third round continued in the same manner as the previous stanza with Ali attempting to trap the quick moving Javakhyan, but failing to make up ground. Javakhyan led by the same three-point margin as the fourth round began. Ali pressed the bout, throwing punches in an attempt to shrink Javakyan’s lead, but he couldn’t make up his deficit and dropped the 20-16 final decision.
“He was kind of awkward to me and I wasn’t responding like I was supposed to. I was tough for me to catch up because he kept moving. I didn’t look like I was supposed to,” Ali said. “I was trying to hit him with power shots, and what I should have done is throw combinations and try to rack up the points.”
Light heavyweight Christopher Downs (Fort Carson, Colo.) will face off with Tony Jeffries of England in the final bout of the evening session.
Sadam Ali quotes
“It was his style (that made him awkward), I tried to get my points back but I didn’t get enough. It wasn’t my day.”
“I wasn’t supposed to lose today. I’m very disappointed, I didn’t want to have to got to another qualifier but I guess that’s what I’ll have to do.”
“I need to not get down in the first round. That happened in both of my bouts and I need to change that.”
“I’ll make it (to the Olympics). That’s not how I wanted to do it, but I’ll get there. I can get more experience, but I know I would have been better off just winning here.”
“I guess what I did wrong was to get down in the first round. Once that happens, if you’re a smart boxer, they’ll just run. That’s what he did, and it was hard for me to get him.”
“I went to him after the first round, I guess I probably put my hands down when I threw my combinations and got hit too.”
Demetrius Andrade quotes
“My straight left to the body was working perfect. I threw it, it was landing and I got a point for it so that’s what I went to.”
“It gives me a lot of confidence and lets me know that I can go in and make it happen.”
“I just have one more, and after I qualify, it’s going for that gold.”
“I always feel comfortable. I tried to stay in the center of the ring and it worked well and when I needed to move, I moved. Every time that I scored it was in the middle of the ring so that everyone could see it.”
“We worked hard, pushed each other in camp, let each other know if they were slacking or doing something wrong. All we try to do is push each other and vibe off the energy.”
“Every time I would go low, he would push my head down. I think he was getting frustrated because he didn’t know what to do, I was throwing so many things at him. He got mad and kept pushing me down and holding me. It happened a few times, and you when you keep doing it and it looks intentional, a point should be taken.”
“I think we’re doing really well, everybody is young and focused and is going for the gold.”
“We go in there and box one opponent at a time and whatever each opponent has, we have something for it.”