By Cliff Rold
The evening session kicked off with the home team at center ring, Britain’s Josh Taylor building a lead through two rounds and using a wise mix of movement and flurries to hold off Brazil’s hard charging Robson Conceição. Olympic scoring issues reared their head, Conceição seemingly not rewarded for all of his connecting blows through three rounds. The tactics paid off for Taylor ultimately, collecting a
13-9 victory.
Lithuania’s Evaldas Petrauskas used crowd-pleasing pressure and a nasty body attack, scoring standing eights in the second and third round and keeping Hungary’s Miklos Varga off balance. Varga fired back almost exclusively to the head throughout, landing his share of countering left hooks. The Petrauskas appeared to land dozens more blows in a fairly one-sided contest but settled for a 20-12 victory.
Turkey’s Faith Keles and Algeria’s Abdelkader Chadi took turns playing aggressor in their tactical match, but it was the more experienced Keles who appeared the more composed of the two. Keles let Chadi come to him in the final round, protecting his lead with well-timed counters. The increasingly dull contest saw an awkward tumble to the floor late, Chadi walking away and shaking his head in frustration. Keles secured victory at a tally of 15-8.
The style, timing and accuracy of Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (Uzbekistan) left Cameroon’s Yhyacinthe Mewoli unable to land enough of note to make it a fight. He wasn’t getting hard most of the time, but Gaibnazarov’s volume was more than enough on the way to an 11-6 nod.
In one of the most exciting contests of the day, Jose Ramirez of the U.S.A. narrowly advanced over a game Rachid Azzedine of France 21-20. Click here for full Team USA coverage of the bout.
The preliminary round at Lightweight closed with a chess match of sorts, Han Soonchul of South Korea advancing over Mohamed Eliwa of Egypt by a score of 11-6.
Action resumes on Thursday in the Lightweight division.
Lightweights - Round of 32 Results (Sunday, July 29):
Wellington Arias (Dominican Republic) def. Eduor Marriaga (Colombia), 17-8
Ahmed Mejrl (Tunisia) def. Shafiq Chitou (Benin), 16-9
Felix Verdejo (Puerto Rico) def. Juan Huertas (Panama), 11-5
Gani Zhailauov (Kazakhstan) def. Saylom Ardee (Thailand), 12-12 (Zhailauov wins on countback)
Jai Bhagwan (India) def. Andrique Allison (Seychelles), 18-8
Liu Qiang (China) def. Luke Jackson (Australia), 20-7
Josh Taylor (Great Britain) def. Robson Conceição (Brazil), 13-9
Evaldas Petrauskas (Lithuania) def. Miklos Varga (Hungary), 20-12
Fatih Keleş (Turkey) def. Abdelkader Chadi (Algeria), 15-8
Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (Uzbekistan) def. Yhyacinthe Mewoli (Cameroon), 11-6
Jose Ramirez (USA) def. Rachid Azzedine (France), 21-20
Soon-Chul Han (Korea) dec. Mohamed Eliwa (Egypt), 11-6
Round of 16 Matchups (Thursday, August 2):
(16) Wellington Arias (Dominican Republic) vs. (1) Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine/Received 1st round bye)
Ahmed Mejrl (Tunisia) vs. Felix Verdejo (Puerto Rico)
Gani Zhailauov (Kazakhstan) vs. Jai Bhagwan (India)
Liq Qiang (China) vs. (4) Yasniel Toledo (Cuba/Received 1st round bye)
Josh Taylor (Great Britain) vs. (3) Domenico Valentino (Italy/Received 1st round bye)
Soon-Chul Han (Korea) vs. (2) Vasgen Safaryanta (Belarus/Received 1st round bye)
Evaldas Petrauskas (Lithuania) vs. Fatih Keleş (Turkey)
Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (Uzbekistan) vs. Jose Ramirez (USA)
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
