Bantamweight Gary Russell, Jr. (Capitol Heights, Md.) opened Friday’s World Championship action, needing only three minutes to stop Israel’s Peter Moyshenzon. Russell’s victory sets up a third round bout with fellow 2005 bronze medalist Ali Hallab of France on Tuesday, October 30.
Russell took control immediately, showcasing his patented speed and power, and dropping Moyshenzon to the canvas with a hook only 30 seconds into the bout. Russell kept the pressure on his moving opponent; giving him a second standing eight count late in the first. He took a commanding 11-1 edge into the second round of action. The 19-year-old peppered Moyshenzon with left hands throughout the first minute of the second round, building up a 21-1 advantage at the 1:03 mark to take the stoppage victory.
“I saw that he was kind of tall, he was a little bit taller than me so I just wanted to but the pressure on him. I wanted to put a little power on it and let him know that I was there,” Russell said. “I never knew the score, I tried something new today, I tried not to worry about the score and just compete, just box.”
Gary Russell, Jr. Quotes
“I had to get the first fight over, and it was my first fight competing since the Olympic Trials. I am just trying to work and stay focused.”
“I am trying to eat, he’s taking food of my table and I can’t let that happen.”
“It was never a psychological thing for me (dropping him so early). I prepared myself well, the whole team has prepared well, and we expect big things from each other. So we just try to work hard and I expect things like that.”
Having my father here was exciting, I heard Let’s Go G and I looked over and I see my father clapping, and I thought, yeah its got to down. I saw them sitting in the front row.”
“I know my left hand was going to be big because he’s an orthodox boxer, so it makes it a lot easier to connect with my left hand. Plus, I have a lot of speed and power so I tried to make it work to my advantage.”
“When you come in with a game plan, you have to stick to it unless your coaches tell you not to. Your coaches are basically your last line of defense. When you’re in the ring, you have to be able to be mentally skilled to see what changes to make in the ring. You can’t listen to your coaches until you get back into the corner. Then that’s when you might change up if your coaches tell you to.”
“In the second round, they told me to take off my power because they didn’t want me to hurt my hands.”
“Health is a concern for me, I’m sick right now, my throat’s real sore, I have a sinus infection and an ear infection.”
“I try not to let myself think about it (being close to qualifying), because when you start thinking about it, you start getting tense. You want to just be relaxed, the whole ride here, we were just having fun and joking. We are a team, we stick together and have everyone rooting for us and its definitely motivation.”
“I’m not sure if we’ve made believers out of anyone. First we have to represent ourselves, we want USA to be proud, that’s what we are trying to do.”
“”We all have unity, you can see it when we box, everyone’s here, everyone’s cheering for each other. So we’re pretty close.”
U,S. Result
119 lbs/54 kg: Gary Russell, Jr., Capitol Heights, Md./USA stopped Peter Moyshenzon, ISR, RSCO-3 (1:03)
(CHICAGO, ILL.) – Seventeen-year-old light welterweight Javier Molina (Commerce, Calif.) continued his outstanding performance at the 2007 World Championships in Chicago, Ill., defeating 2005 World Championships bronze medalist Emil Maharramov of Azerbaijan, 27-10, on Friday afternoon.
Despite Maharramov’s extensive experience, Molina took control of the bout from the start, taking the first lead and out-boxing his opponent. Molina enjoyed a 6-1 lead after the first, but it was the second round where he truly made his mark. The American boxer showered Maharramov with crisp, sharp punches in combination, building a convincing 19-5 advantage at the halfway point in the bout. He extended his lead to 16 in the third round but Maharramov held off the stoppage, trying to rough-house the younger Molina. Despite Maharramov’s tactics, Molina boasted a 23-9 lead after three rounds. He evaded the wild Maharramov’s punches in the fourth, using movement to avoid the Azerbaijani boxer. Molina went on to win a 27-10 final decision, and now stands one win away from qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games.
“I was trying to turn him and come back with some punches when he was off balance,” Molina said. “I knew that if I got up on points early in the bout, that he would start getting wild because I saw some of his fights before. I just tried to do my best to get the lead and to keep it up in the end.”
Four U.S. boxers will take ring at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago on Saturday with flyweight Rau’shee Warren (Cincinnati, Ohio) facing Avila Juarez Braulio of Mexico; featherweight Raynell Williams (Cleveland, Ohio) battling Mazat Ospanov of Kazakhstan; middleweight Shawn Estrada (E. Los Angeles, Calif.) taking on Ryota Murata of Japan; and super heavyweight Michael Hunter (Las Vegas, Nev.) closing the day in a contest with Turkey’s Kurban Gunebakan.
Javier Molina quotes
“I’ve seen some other fights of his and he would catch people with wild punches, but I knew if I stayed relaxed and focused and I didn’t get wild with him that I would be able to make him miss.”
“I knew he was a bronze medalist but I saw him fight a guy from Kazakhstan, and the guy beat him by 20 points. The guy from Kazakhstan just started moving on him and he just started getting wild.”
“So far this has been going great, I’m going to try to keep it going and get that gold medal.”
“I brought some homework in all my classes here, pre-calculus, economics, all my classes. I have a lot of schoolwork to do this weekend.”
“To me education is really important, I have boxing and I love to do that, but I have to stick to my studies. I need my education so I have something to fall back on. I have a 3.6 GPA. I just have to work harder to balance school and boxing, but I have to sacrifice to do what I love. I’m sure it will all pay off in the end if I stayed focused and do all my work.”
“At Palmer High School in Colorado, they all help me with my school work. They all know what’s going on and that I’m pretty busy so they give me all my work so I can turn it in when I get back. I’m the new kid at school, but I’m making a lot of friends already.”
U.S. Result
141 lbs/64 kg: Javier Molina, Commerce, Calif./USA dec. Emil Maharramov, AZE, 27-10
Light heavyweight Christopher Downs (Fort Carson, Colo.) was the final U.S. boxer to compete in Thursday’s action, taking on Ukraine’s Ismayl Sillakh.
Downs took early control of the bout, which was contested in front of a raucous crowd of both Ukrainian and American fans. The action was fast and furious in the first round with Downs enjoying the better of the action to take an 8-5 lead after one round. He continued to land straight shots in the second stanza, moving out to a 16-12 lead at the midway mark. Yet Downs chose to engage in the third stanza and the charging Sillakh started to chip away at his lead, and the American boxer held only a 19-18 advantage as the final round began. The fourth round was a battle of wills with the crowd reaching a furious peak as both the Ukrainian and American fans cheered their boxers. Sillakh pulled the bout to a tie and the lead changed hands over the final minute of the bout. Downs appeared re-energized by the roaring chants of U-S-A ringing through the rafters of the UIC Pavilion. He grabbed the final lead in the last 15 seconds of the bout before winning a 27-25 final decision.
“I have to credit my condition, I didn’t execute anything that my corner asked me to do. He took me out of my game. He had a nice straight right hand and it kind of threw me off a little bit,” Downs said. “I was trying to counter with speed and it didn’t work. I dwindled my lead away, I had a five point lead and instead of using the ring, I chose to engage. I tried to increase my lead and it almost backfired on me, so next time I will try to listen to what my corner is telling me to do and execute.”
Christopher Downs quotes
“I’m not really concerned about what the score is from time to time. My corner just tells me whether I’m up or down and to protect the lead. I thought I was a lot quicker than this guy, a lot faster, but he started to put his punches together really nicely and at the end, I just had to engage and make it a street fight and find out who wanted it the most."
“That is the loudest I’ve heard the U.S. crowd since we’ve been here, I loved hearing our fans be passionate. I challenge everyone else who’s not here to come out and support their national team because it gave me the strength to keep pushing and to engage. I just love the fans and this is the first time that we’ve gotten to be home and hear them chanting USA and not any boos. "
“I made it a tough fight, not to take anything away from him. He came in there and did what he was supposed to do, but I have to fault myself for that. I should have just listened and trusted my corner more. Next time, I will have to do that or I might be going home.”
“From day one when I started boxing, its just the will and the desire to win and persevere and when it feels like its slipping away, just to buckle down and knuckle up and do the best you can. Not listening to my corner got me in trouble, they have 40 or 50 years of experience and they know what they are talking about. I have to trust in my corner and I do trust them but I thought I was a lot quicker and it proved me wrong tonight.”
“When the team was put together I saw that you could see quite a few World Championships and Olympic medals from this team. It’s a young but talented group from our 106, Luis Yanez, all the way up to our super heavyweight Michael Hunter, the average age outside of myself has to be 19-years-old, a lot of them are in school and training full time as well as studying, but they have the will and determination to do this nation proud.”
“We are among the best in my opinion, there are few countries that are ahead of us, just because they have more experienced boxers. Raynell Williams boxed a 2004 Olympian and beat him. You have to take your hat off to these kids, they aren’t intimidated by anybody.”
“In comparing this to the battlefield, the similarity is that both sides come to fight, but you can get up and walk away from this.”
“I haven’t gotten a chance to spar in the last couple of weeks, not making any excuses, but my timing’s a little off so the first time I got in live contact, and it showed.”
“Dan Campbell is truly a national coach, a great disciplinarian, he makes sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to do, and be where they are supposed to be. If they’re not, he makes sure they stay in line and that’s what you have to do. There’s no premadonnas on this team. Its all about team, its all about togetherness. As I tell them all the time, once we cross the waters, we don’t have anyone but each other.”
“Those guys are the great comedians, when you are tired and they always do something to lift your spirits and make you want to dig down.”
“I like to make it as easy as possible, we have a saying that a hard head makes a soft body and I have to learn from my mistakes and listen to my coaches. If I could, I’d like to have it by walkover.”
“My first goal, first and foremost is to qualify and anything after that is a bonus.”
U.S. Result
178 lbs/81 kg: Christopher Downs, Fort Carson, Colo./USA dec. Ismayl Sillakh, UKR, 27-25
