AIBA Youth World Championships - 2008

[boxmel]

Oscar Molina won tonight, too - at least assured of a bronze medal. He will box David Joyce from Ireland in the semis. Ireland is just trucking right along - I think this is the best they've done in a while. Out of an 8 man team, they have 4 going into the semis.

[Dennis]

Nick Kisner just lost 1-5.

[Dennis]

Joey Dawejko just won 10-8. He is now in the medal rounds. Congrats Joey!!!

[Dennis]

I wished for 4 or 5 medals, but said we would be lucky to get 3. Well we are going to get the 3. Now it is just a matter of what color. I hope we get at least one gold.
Joey Dawejko faces the Ukrainian boxer in the semi-finals. Cuban vs. German on the other side of the bracket.
Luis Arias faces a very tough German boxer in the semi-finals. Cuban vs. Russian on the other side of the bracket.
Adam Lopez faces a good Puerto Rican boxer in the semi-finals. Uzbekistan vs. Cuban on the other side of the bracket.
I think we will probably get a silver and 2 bronzes or 2 silvers and a bronze, but I really hope we get 1 gold, 1 silver and a bronze. One of each color!!!

[galaxy]

In semifinals:

6 - CUB RUS
4 - IRL !
3 - GER ROM USA UZB
2 - KAZ MEX UKR
1 - AUS BLR CZE DOM FIN FRA IND ITA POL PUR

[Dennis]

No South American countries in the semi-finals? If that is true, I'm surprised. Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina and Brazil have some decent boxers. However, I guess the same thing happened in Beijing.

[Dennis]

It also looks like there are no boxers from the African continent. Mostly Asia and Europe and a few from North America.

[usaboxing574]

Errol Spence might get bac in the championships becuze the dude he fought illegal wrapped his hand to make it feel lik a cast around knuckles in aiba rule book you cant wear tape or extra guaze around the knuckle you can only use what they give you they will make a decision today if theyre goin to disquilify him most likely they are they caught him red handed taking off the tape.....

[CoreyWash]

wow thats wrong! shouldnt be any ifs, ands, or buts about it..he should definately be dq'd..hopefully errol gets back in & i would like for him to win gold, but if not he'll at least get bronze

[mike222]

Incoxelbox do you know what happened to kuznetsov-who was my favourite for gold.

[JMac]

He will box David Joyce from Ireland in the semis. Ireland is just trucking right along - I think this is the best they've done in a while. Out of an 8 man team, they have 4 going into the semis.

Ireland has a great High Performance Program. I don't know all of the details about what they do but it is working for them. They got 3 medals in Beijing and now 4 this tournament. Not bad for a small country.

[boxmel]

Interesting info, Jim - thanks for the post. Do you know if they are using Irish coaches or have they imported?

[JMac]

Interesting info, Jim - thanks for the post. Do you know if they are using Irish coaches or have they imported?

Back in the '90's, they had a Cuban coach Nicholas Cruz. I read where he is still in Ireland working with 3 Cubans who defected and are boxing pro. In Beijing, Ireland had an assistant from Armenia.

[locoxelbox]

There were some great bouts yesterday and quite a few surprises for me.

48 kg: The frenchman Jeremy Beccu has been a fan favorite with his brawling style. He stopped the hungarian on punching volume. He´s a slight favorite in a close division (as is the case in most divisions). The russian was losing to Taipei but turned it around.

51 kg: GREAT division. I hold the cuban Yunier Robles as a slight favorite for gold but Adam Lopez and puerto rican Jonathan Gonzalez has been very impressive as well as the uzbek. I don't know what happened to the russian (lost on RSC Injury), must´ve missed his bout.

54 kg: Magomed Kurbanov is a clear favorite. He dropped the argentinian with a hook to the liver. Very strong, tight guard and high intensity punching. The finn Matti Koota has a lot of fans here and has won close bouts against good opponents all the way. Good for finnish boxing, they haven´t won a medal for a while.

57 kg: Oscar Valdez will win gold here, no doubt. His opponents have to land 5-7 clean, hard shots to the head to score one point. Valdez only has to land one punch to the arms and he´ll score. Yesterday he met a very good Uzbek, probably the best in the division and Valdez won 13-1! Valdez is the best mexican but I don´t think he would win gold outside Mexico. The russian is good but will find it hard to beat the mexican here.

[locoxelbox]

60 kg: The kazakh will probably get it, however I had expected something else from him. The "win" of irish Ray Moylett over cuban Juan Garcia 10-2 just shows what´s so wrong with amateur boxing these days. Moylett went in with a supertight defense guard. The cuban backed him up against the ropes and unleashed combination after combination and nothing happened. The irishman is strong and resisted the onslaught and sometimes he would throw a haymaker which scored. The cuban continued punching for four rounds but it was outright ridiculous. The bout ended 10-2. At one moment the doctor examined the irishman because his face was all red from all punches but he couldn´t stop it cause IRL was ahead. Only one judge had the cuban ahead in the individual scoring. Earlier the russian Kurbanov had implemented the same tactics against another cuban, however in that bout he threw back more often than the irishman did now.

64 kg: Very good uzbek stopped the german with some thunderous bodyshots. The german had been the most impressive until now. Chladek, CZE was good beating the russian.

[locoxelbox]

69 kg: Errol Spence was outclassed in the first against hardpunching uzbek (they have a very strong team) Boturjon Mahmudov. Spence was weakened from some hard bodyshots early. In the later rounds it was closer but the bout was already in the uzbek´s hands. However the uzbek will have to work hard for gold because mexican Oscar Molina will probably get the necessary help from the judges (see Oscar Valdez). Molina fought a good romanian and fell behind early (he was outclassed in the first) but after the first round the romanian just didn´t score any more points. The bout ended 13-5 to Molina...

[locoxelbox]

75 kg: Another good, close weight where russian Dimitry Bivol is the man to beat. Cuban Rey Recio is storng but hasn't impressed much. Luis Arias looked good beating the czech and could end up in the final.

81 kg: Cuban Jose Larduet is a huge favorite for gold after winning three times inside the distance. Looks like a future star.

91 kg: Erislandy Savon (nephew of Felix) won an intense bout against the russian yesterday and is the favorite for gold. Tall, good skills but without his uncle´s murderous right hand he handled the strrong russian for most of the bout. Wladimir Klitchko lookalike Ivan Dychko, KAZ handled the short american with ease and will probably get silver.

+91 kg: Cuban Omar Ibañez reminded me of a young Odlanier Solis, maybe slower on his feet. He is really a small 91 kg who has to eat to be on the weight. He had a great bout with bigger and stronger russian Suleimanov and was rocked a couple of times but his handspeed and boxing skills solved the bout for him. American Joey Dawejko won a close 10-8 decision over the kazakh and I see him in the final. However he ain´t no new Tyson or Holyfield...

[locoxelbox]

Thanks, Loco - best assessment I've heard/seen. Appreciate your taking the time and am glad you are there. Who do you have in the tournament?

Hi Mel, I´m coaching the swedish team now (for the last two months). We had one boxer in the quarters but he did too little in his bout vs Ireland.

It was the same thing in international basketball. The US tried to win on talent alone but got beat by teams with better fundamentals.

Agree completely. The comparison with US basketball is a very good one. There is no doubt the US have the best individual players but with good technical and tactical fundamentals other teams have caught up on them.

So there is some home ring favoritism?

Yes, the usual stuff. The thing is, with the open scoring it's so easy to see. I don´t think it would work if it wasn´t in favor of the home nation. Here everybody is happy and chearing for their mexican team so no one will complain.

No South American countries in the semi-finals? If that is true, I'm surprised. Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina and Brazil have some decent boxers.

Of the south american countries Ecuador and Argentina had the best boxers. Brazil had a surprisingly weak team. Their seven boxers lost first time out.

Errol Spence might get bac in the championships becuze the dude he fought illegal wrapped his hand to make it feel lik a cast around knuckles

Talked to the americans and it seems nothing will happen. It has happened in three bouts that there has been protests (only one official) against the hand wrapping. The Germans also complained in another bout. And it has been Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan who illegally have taped their hands above the bandage.

[boxmel]

The cuban backed him up against the ropes and unleashed combination after combination and nothing happened

Okay - so I'm not there to actually see..... BUT - In order for a punch to score the judge(s) must be able to see it land (if they aren't cheating). If a boxer is up against the ropes, or in a corner, two judges are automatically lost and, possibly three. The mantra now is stay in the middle of the ring and move - and the Cubans are generally the best at that.

Loco - What is your assessment of Oscar Molina? I've always thought that both the Molinas, Oscar and Javier, were somewhat lacking in the power department.

[Dennis]

Loco - great assessments. I think it is horrible that the "Stan's" are cheating with the use of tape and not getting DQ'd. If AIBA officials won't DQ a boxer for it, then it is going to become more rampant. Maybe next time they will add something else to the handwrap. Where will it stop? Enforce the rules!!!

[Canada]

They are shwoing live video now on the AIBA website. That is a giant ring.

[Dennis]

If you don't have your screen set correctly, it gets stretched and the ring looks ridiculously large.

[boxmel]

Probably a 20' ring. And didya see all the spectators! D D

[Dennis]

Lopez and Arias both lost and will get bronze medals.

[Dennis]

Joey Dawejko just defeated the Ukranian 8-3. Congrats Joey. He is now the only USA boxer to be in the finals.