Boxing at the Summer Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo

Clarke lost the first clearly but did get in one right hand that foreshadowed the one that rocked the Uzbek in the second...fascinated to see what happens in R3.

 

Oof, stopped on the cut? Very dissatisfying but probably the right call, it was bad.

 

RSC3 for Jalolov...so the damage was ruled from punches.

 

Very gracious and classy exit from Clarke, bowing to his opponent and blowing grateful kisses at the crowd.

 

Richard Torrez, Jr. (USA) vs. Kamshybek Kunkabayev (KAZ), +91kg semifinal

 

Lots of flitting hesitancy from the American southpaw, getting his third eye stamped with right jabs from Kunk every time he dips in close. Good overhand left by Torrez with under a minute left forcing the Kazakh to hold, but maybe doesn't offset the full two minutes of getting jabbed to hell.

10-9 Kunkabayev

 

Wow, the judges go 4 to 1 for Torrez. Excitable bunch, no appreciation for nuance I guess.

 

RTJ getting drilled with the southpaw 1-2 and backed up after starting the second round aggressively. Good body scythes by Kunkabayev, digging hard into the internal organs. Torrez with arm punches in the clinch, holding and tapping. Kunkabayev is docked a point for holding, bafflingly. Torrez keeps diving in, knotting himself up with Kunkabayev, and landing plentiful but light shots on the body. Edge in volume if not quality to RTJ.

...oh and he scores a huge knockdown in the final moments!

10-7 Torrez

19-17 Torrez

 

The safe assumption with Cubans is that most of them never have any plans for that anyway. Only a minority want (or want badly enough to risk attempting) to defect, and not all of those succeed.

 

Another cut, wtf??

This one ruled from a head clash?

 

Congrats to RTJ, but honestly I feel like Jal vs. Kunk would've been a more fun gold medal bout. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Maybe...he did perform more admirably in his final match than Whittaker did in his, though. In fact, I know the Brit hype mob won't like hearing this but the latter kind of went out like a bitch if we're honest.

 

Cool so I was right to fast-forward straight past them.

 

Aye, there's another hot takeaway of mine: Kunkabayev was more impressive than RTJ.