Search

Although professional boxers were first allowed into the Olympics eight years ago, they haven’t come close to dominating in the way many coaches and fighters feared they would. That’s easy to forget this week outside of Paris if you happen to be watching 30-year-old super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov taking time out from his 14-0 pro career to try to beat up a bunch of younger, less experienced boxers in his third Olympics. Jalolov and a few other pros, particularly IBF lightweight champion Beatriz Ferreira of Brazil, have some coaches and opponents questioning their presence in Paris.

The International Olympic Committee has defended the right of two athletes to compete in women’s boxing despite being judged last year to have failed gender eligibility tests at the world championships. Two-time world champion Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria are both competing at their second Olympics. IOC spokesman Mark Adams says they meet Olympic tournament eligibility rules. Adams says at the Olympics organizers' daily news conference in Paris: “They are women in their passports and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.”

Two-time Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Julio César La Cruz of Cuba lost his opening bout at the Paris Games. He lost by split decision to Loren Alfonso, a Cuban defector who fights for Azerbaijan. La Cruz won the first round of the heavyweight bout but lost the last two rounds on three of the five judges’ scorecards to lose the 3-2 decision. He graciously accepted the result with Alfonso. La Cruz was attempting to join Laszlo Papp of Hungary and fellow Cubans Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon as the only three-time gold medalists in Olympic boxing history.

Claressa Shields knocked out WBC heavyweight champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse early in the second round, earning titles in a fourth and fifth division. The two-time Olympic gold medalist moved up two weight classes to fight at 175 pounds as a light heavyweight and also claimed Lepage-Joanisse’s heavyweight belt. Her previous titles were at 154, 160 and 168 pounds. Shields ended the first round with a series of combinations and started the second with more, barely breaking a sweat. She landed a flurry of shots that sent Lepage-Joanisse down for the third and final time 1:09 into the second round.