Boxing at the Summer Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo

Still all Price on the offiical judges' cards, now 20-18 - save one (the Kazakh judge gave Qian the second and has them level, 19 apiece)

Li needs a big KO.

 

Round 3

Price is rattling off beautiful 1-2-1-2s and then resetting outside, keeping limber with a constant vertical bob up on the ball of either foot, knees always kept slightly bent. Price just completely in control, textbook display of boxing. Qian tries different tacts coming in, but no matter which hand she leads with or from which angle, Price, now a fulltime southpaw, inevitably sidesteps and nails her with a quick right jab or combination before teleporting a meter away in a blink.

10-9 Price

30-27 Price

 

Kind of regretting having not watched more of Lauren Price's matches, she's quite a talent.

 

Official cards:

30-27 x4
29-28 (silly Kazakh)

UD for Price, now an Olympic boxing world champion to go along with gold medals at both the the AIBA world championships and Euro Games in 2019, and the Commonwealth Games in 2018, and having become a 4x world champ in kickboxing in her teens (seniors titles, mind you)

Quite the combat sportsperson, this young Welsh lady. I could see her doing well in the pros... only 27 now.

 

Skipping through dead air, stopping for a gander at the men's lightweight podium ceremony..

 

A battle of those bronze medalists (Hovhannes Bachkov and Harry Garside of Armenia and Australia respectively) would actually be fun as hell.

Just checked, they've never met.

(Bachkov has already turned pro, however, and Garside hasn't yet)

 

Slick dance moves there, Andy.

 

...and now, folks, the main event of the Olympics, in more ways than one...

(capping things off in the finale slot, in the division that usually gets the most attention, with a pair of the names that have been most on everyone's lips throughout most of this event)

276th overall match of this Olympiad.

 

Men's Super Heavy (+91kg) Final Bout: Bakhodir Jalolov (UZB) vs. Richard Torrez, Jr. (USA)

 

RTJ out to classical music. Interesting choice. I dig it.

 

Round 1

Jalolov is lumping out heavy right jabs while moving counter-clockwise. Torrez is ducking and swerving dramatically from side to side as the Uzbek rearranges his thick mop of brown curls with jabs. Torrez is able to plant some leather on the long torso diving in low but Jalolov punishes him with a left cross. Torrez keps diving in and getting pushed down with his face below Jalolov's knees. Ref not giving them much leeway on the inside, asking for a step back. Their lead feet - Jalolov's right and Torrez's left - seem constantly in danger of tripping each other, both so preoccupied with finding a home for their own punches and watching alertly for return fire. Nice descending 1-2 by Jalolov, hitting the upper and rear portion of Torrez's head as he dives in yet again to grab around Jalolov's waist.

10-9 Jalolov

 

Judges split, 10-9 x3 for Torres and x2 for Jalolov.

 

Round 2

Torrez lands a couple of nice jolting left crosses up top, on the soul patch of Jalolov, after gaining entry with some whirring right hands and then bowing deeply forward. Jalolov catches Torrez with a clubbing shot in the pocket that drops him nearly onto all fours and the ref gives him a count. Torrez rallies, answering with a couple more hard lefts up top. Jalolov loading up with heavy but slow arm punches, dragging his left arm from behind his own butt to loop it at Torrez's head and missing with his fist but still clobbering with his inner arm. Heavy lefts by Jalolov dropped on the face of Torrez, buzzing him. Torres holds and hits the rest of the way. Shame, such a strong start for the American but all it took was a few touches from Jalolov to turn it completely around.

10-8 Jalolov

20-17 Jalolov

 

That power is truly bananas. I was getting excited halfway into the second with how well Torrez was doing, thinking it'd be knotted at 19-19 heading into round three.

 

Judges' cards:

10-8 Jalolov
10-9 x4 Jalolov

...and the overall tabulation:

19-17 Jalolov
20-17 x2 Jalolov
19-18 x2 Jalolov