Flyweight/51 kg
Bolat DZUMADILOV (KAZ) and Zoltan LUNKA (GER) have met before - in the 1995 World Championships. In that tournament, LUNKA came out on top, defeating DZUMADILOV, 13-6 and clinching the world championship. On Friday, 2 August at 20:00, the two will meet again in a rematch to determine who will get the bronze and who will move closer to the gold medal as both boxers advanced to the semifinals win wins on Wednesday. DZUMADILOV advanced by beating Ireland's Damaen KELLY, 13-6. KELLY led off the bout with a left less than a minute into the round. DZUMADILOV added a blow of his own to even the score as round one ended at two a piece. In the second round, DZUMADILOV pulled ahead to lead 8-5. KELLY lost two points in the third round after the referee penalized him for misuse of the head. That changed the score to 12-6.
LUNKA defeated Mahdi ASSOUS from Algeria, 19-6. LUNKA landed two punches, including a right uppercut, to jump out to a 2-0 lead. He never trailed, ending the first round 7-4. In the second round, LUNKA led with strong rights to continue leading the bout and hand ASSOUS a standing eight with a right cross. The score at the end of two rounds stood at 11-6. LUNKA ran away with the win in the third as he shut out ASSOUS, 8-0.
"In the first round I saw that my opponent was ready to attack me," said DZUMADILOV. "In the second round, I saw the opponent was just defending himself and not attacking. Then I started to score and attack with more aggression."
Floyd MAYWEATHER of the USA, did tonight what a United States boxer hasn't done in 20 years - beat a Cuban. MAYWEATHER defeated Lorenzo ARAGON 12-11 and will advance on to the semifinals, thus assuring himself of at least a bronze medal. MAYWEATHER cannot celebrate yet. His next opponent is the defending world champion Serafim TODOROV from Bulgaria, ranked number one in the world. TODOROV also advanced, defeating world championships bronze medalist, Falk HUSTE from Germany. TODOROV outscored HUSTE in all three rounds, with his biggest margin coming in round three, when he outscored HUSTE 8-3. MAYWEATHER will meet in the semifinals on 2 August.
"Boxing is wear and tear on your body.," said MAYWEATHER. "When you are a fighter it's hard. The Olympics is the biggest tournament of my life. It was a very difficult fight for me, but I feel that I won."
The 1995 World Champion bronze medalist, Oktay URKAL of Germany defeated Nordine MOUCHI of France to advanced to the light welterweight semifinals. URKAL scored the first two punches to lead 2-0 early in the first round, but MOUCHI came back and allowed the German only a 3-2 at the first bell. The score remained tied much of the second round until the last thirty seconds, when the German landed two blows for an 8-6 lead. In the third, URKAL used two rights to force a standing eight count to MOUCHI. URKAL dominated the rest of the round and won by a score of 19-10. URKAL will face Tunisia's Fathi MISSAOUI who beat Mohamed ALLALOU from Algeria by the narrow margin of 16-15.
"I got the last word of my trainer at ringside," said MISSAOUI. "My desire to win gave me the adrenaline to win the fight. I did not expect it to be that hard of a bout. It was a tough fight. The Algerian was a strong fighter."
World champion Markus BEYER of Germany was upset Wednesday by Ezmouhan IBAZIMOV from Kazakstan. IBAZIMOV took control of the bout early, using the left and right effectively to take a 5-2 lead after the first. In the second round, IBAZIMOV extended his lead to five (12-7) outscoring BEYER, 7-5. The third round was much the same as IBAZIMOV outscored BEYER 7-2 and won the bout by a final score of 19-9. IBAZIMOV will face Cuba's Alfredo DUVERGEL, a silver medalist from the world championships, also ranked number one. DUVERGEL defeated Italy's Antonio PERUINO 15-8.
"I was really counting on a gold medal," said BEYER. But he was a top ranked boxer and tough to fight. I realized I had lost the fight in the third round. I thought the second round was pretty equal. The third round was where I realized I was losing."
Thomas ULRICH of Germany, another world championship bronze medalist, will advance to the light heavyweight semifinals as he defeated Brazil's Daniel BISPO. ULRICH came back from a 3-2 deficit after the first round, and took control in the second and third rounds to take the bout from BISPO, 14-7. ULRICH will meet LEE Seung-Bae from Korea in the semifinals. LEE defeated Stipe DRVIS from Croatia, 14-11.
ULRICH (GER): "Physically the fight was easy for me," said ULRICH. " I could have gone another two rounds. I felt really relaxed."
The first bout in the weight class may rank with the best bouts of the Olympic Games. Paea WOLFGRAMM from Tonga defeated Rubalcaba ALEXIS of Cuba in a huge upset. The 300+ pound Tongan defeated the Cuban 17-12, leading his attack with a left hook and even knocking down the Cuban in the second round. WOLFGRAMM, assured himself at least a bronze medal and could become the first Tongan to ever receive an Olympic gold medal. WOLFGRAMM will meet Duncan DOKIWARI from Nigeria in the semifinals. DOKIWARI stopped his opponent Adaliat MAMEDOV of Azerbaijan in the third round. The score was tied at ten when the bout was stopped.
"A victory over a Cuban is an achievement for me - darn near a gold medal for me," WOLFGRAMM. "The fight to me was so important and it hit home that I had won the fight against a Cuban, a very good Cuban at that."
Albert PAKEEV of Russia will move on to the semifinal round of the Olympic flyweight class, but just barely. PAKEEV needed a tiebreaker to defeat Daniel REYES (COL) to earn a spot in Friday's semifinals. REYES led 4-3 after the opening round, outscoring PAKEEV with a strong right hand. REYES built his lead to 7-4 in the second round again using his right hand attack. PAKEEV came back strong in the third round to tie the score at eight before taking the lead at 1:59 in the final round. REYES tied the score with a right at 1:35, but then PAKEEV was awarded two points when REYES was called for holding. REYES landed a right with 48 seconds remaining and then was awarded two points to tie the score after PAKEEV was called for hitting with his shoulder. PAKEEV moved ahead with a right but REYES tied the score at the end of the third round, 13-13. PAKEEV took the bout with the tiebreaker score of 64-49.
PAKEEV will face Maikro ROMERO from Cuba in the semifinals. ROMERO beat Elias RECAIDO (PHI), 18-3, to advance. The winner of the PAKEEV and ROMERO advances to the gold medal bout while the loser earns one of the two bronze medals awarded in boxing.
"By the third round, I knew all the tricks he was doing, so I started to take over with my strategy, said PAKEEV." I don't know which medal I am going to get but I'm striving to do my best."
Number-two ranked Kamsing SOMLUCK of Thailand assured himself at least a bronze medal at the 1996 Games as he defeated Russia's Ramaz PALIANI to advance to the semifinals in the featherweight class. In a low scoring opening round, SOMLUCK landed a right early to take the lead 1-0. PALIANI tied the score one minute later with a right of his own for the only scoring in the round. The action picked up in the second round as SOMLUCK dominated and scored effectively with rights and lefts throughout the three minutes. SOMLUCK led 7-1 at the end of round number two before completing the bout for a 13-4 win.
SOMLUCK will face Pablo CHACON from Argentina. CHACON beat Hungary's Janos NAGY 18-7 to earn his spot in the semifinals.
"The Russian was a good fighter," said SOMLUCK. He had a good left and good technique. But I was faster and had good training."
Hector VINCENT (CUB) the defending Olympic gold medalist, reigning world champion, and Pan-American gold medalist, advanced to the semifinals as he defeated Edward ZAHAROV from the Russian Federation. The bout was close in the first round as the score was tied at three when the bell rang. In the second round, both boxers scored two points in the first minute VINENT landed a left at the 1:40 mark and then added a straight right to go on top 7-5. ZAHAROV countered with a right of his own to cut the lead to 7-6, but VINENT landed two more blows to ZAHAROV'S one to end the scoring in the round at 9-7. VINENT shut out his opponent in the third round to seal a 15-7 victory. With his victory, VINENT became the sixth Cuban boxer to advance to the semifinals.
VINENT will meet Kazakstan's Bolat NIYAZYMBETOV in the semifinals. NIYAZYMBETOV defeated Babak MOGHIMI of Ireland 13-8.
"It was a perfect fight for me," said ZAHAROV in spite of the loss. "It was one of my best fights ever. I was hoping to make it better, but I couldn't accomplish it."
David REID (USA), welterweight bronze medalist at the Pan-American Games, is now assured at least a bronze medal at the Olympic Games. REID defeated Mohamed Salah MARMOURI (TUN) ranked number nine in the world, 13-8 to advance to Friday's semifinal. MARMOURI opened the scoring with a right hand in the first 26 seconds of the first round. REID answered with three consecutive points to pull ahead. REID landed two rights and a left hook to take the lead 3-1 with 1:20 remaining in the round. MARMOURI responded late in the round with a right hand and a left hook to tie the bout at 3-3 with 34 seconds remaining. REID scored again in the final seconds of the round to take the lead 4-3 at the bell. In the second round, MARMOURI was quick to tie the score , but then REID was awarded two points when MARMOURI was penalized for hitting after the break. MARMOURI pulled within one point with a left hook, but REID controlled the rest of the round scoring with two rights in the finals 10 seconds to stretch his lead to 10-5 at the bell. In the third round both boxers scored three points as REID clinched the victory.
REID will meet Karim TULAGANOV (UZB) who stopped his opponent Rival CADEAU (SEY) in the first round. TULAGANOV is ranked number three in the world.
"It means a whole lot to me, but it will mean a whole lot more when I get the gold medal," said REID.
World and Pan American Games gold medalist, Antonio TARVER (USA) will attempt to add an Olympic gold medal to his list of accolades, as he advances to the semifinals as the fifth U.S.boxer to be assured a medal. TARVER stopped his opponent Enrique FLORES (PUR) in the third round. TARVER'S best round was the second round when he outscored FLORES 10-1 and continued his assault in the third round until the bout was stopped by the referee with TARVER winning 18-3. TARVER will meet Kasili JIROV (KAZ), a bronze medalist at the 1995 World Championships in Friday's semifinal.
JIROV defeated Troy Amos ROSS (CAN) 14-8. The first round between the two ended on a tie at 4-4. But much like TARVER, JIROV took control of the bout in the second round when he outscored ROSS 7-1.
"I'm two away from my dream.," said TARVER. "We watched the tapes and he was really tougher than we anticipated...I don't want to subject myself to easy points...(my coaches) want me to show people what I'm made of."
Russia's Alexei LEZIN, the reining world champion and ranked number one in the world defeated Germany's ninth-ranked Rene MONSE, 9-5, to advance to the semifinals in the super heavyweight class. MONSE opened the scoring with a left 30 seconds into the first round. LEZIN answered with a right and then scored again in the final seconds to take a 2-1 lead at the bell. In the second round, LEZIN won the battle of the two southpaws stretching his lead to 6-2. MONSE, who was bleeding from the nose, closed within three points twice in the third round, but was never able to string together a flurry of punches to challenge LEZIN.
LEZIN will box Ukrainian Vladimir KLICHKO in the semifinals. KLICHKO stopped 13th ranked Attila LEVIN of Sweden in the first round. KLICHKO was leading 5-1 when the bout was stopped.
"I had the ability to beat the Russian but I did not convert it to practice," said MONXE. "I did enjoy these Games but they would have been better if I had won a medal. I will definitely be back for Sydney in 2000."
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