FOR the third straight Olympiad, the Philippines will go home without a boxing medal after Harry Tañamor, the lone entry, lost in the round of 32 to Ghana’s Manyo Plange.
Tañamor, the third-best prospect to win the gold in Beijing, was the overwhelming favorite in the match but the African champion showed no respect for the Pinoy’s credentials.
A head shot put Ghana ahead before Tañamor quickly leveled the match.
The Pinoy went to the body late in the first round but his flurries didn’t count, instead, he trailed 1-2 at the end of the first.
It was a similar story in the second and third rounds as Tañamor’s body hunting failed to impress the judges while a counterpunch to the put Plange ahead 2-5.
Tañamor, who finished second in the World Championships in Chicago last year, failed to score a single point in round 3 and his last ditch efforts in the final round netted him only a point.
In the other bouts, Lukasz Maszczyk of Poland, defeated Saidu Kargbo, Sierra Leone, (RSC 1:32); Birzhan Zhakypov Kazakhstan defeated Pal Bedak, Hungary, 7-6;
Hovhannes Danielyan of Armenia defeated Thomas Essomba, Cameroon, 9-3; Nordine Oubaali of France defeated Rafikjon Sultonov, Uzbekistan, 8-7; Zou Shiming of China defeated Eduard Bermudez Salas, Venezuela, 11-2; and Winston Montero of the Dominican Republic defeated Suleiman Wanjau Bilali.
Meanwhile, Shiming began his quest for China’s first boxing gold medal in style Wednesday with an 11-2 victory over Bermudez of Venezuela in the light flyweight division as the Olympics’ biggest and smallest boxers began wrapping up the tournament’s preliminary bouts.
Deontay Wilder stopped the US team’s freefall with a brutal come-from-behind victory over Algeria’s Abdelaziz Touilbini, while Osmai Acosta shut out his Nigerian opponent to open his chase for Cuba’s fifth consecutive Olympic heavyweight title.
Zou became a national hero for winning China’s first boxing medal with a bronze in Athens, and he followed it up with world championships in 2005 and 2007. Though the martial-arts-trained Zou often struggles to make his 48-kilogram weight limit, he doesn’t seem to lose much power.
Zou entered Workers’ Gymnasium with both arms stretched high, pumping his gloves with frenetic vigor to a huge ovation from the two-thirds-full arena. (ML with a report from AP)
