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08/16/2008 Archived Entry: "Six Chinese Boxers Will Be Questing For Olympic Medals In The Quarter Finals"
Six Chinese Boxers Will Be Questing For Olympic Medals In The Quarter Finals
By Zhenyu Li
BEIJING, Aug. 15 -- With China’s finest boxer Shiming Zou in line to compete on Saturday, there have been five boxers get passed into the last eight, making China a strong contender for the Olympic medals.
China’s super heavyweight Zhilei Zhang blasted Mohamed Amanissi of Morocco 7-0 on Wednesday, becoming the first Chinese boxer to qualify for the Quarter Finals.
The second-best Chinese boxer, welterweight Silamu Hanati crushed the low-rated Cameroonian Joseph Mulema 9-4 the following day to secure a birth in the last eight.
Although being outclassed both in skills and tactics, the Cameroonian showed no signs of fear, pushing forward, like a bulldozer, and throwing wild punches. His endeavor was effortless as Silamu trapped him with nifty footwork and countered him with blazing fists.
The Chinese welterweight ended the fight with a five point margin. He will face a Bahamian fighter on Sunday in his next bout, which is in strong favor of the Chinese.
On the same day, Chinese light heavyweight Xiaoping Zhang shocked the world by outclassing the World Championships silver medalist Russian Artur Beterbiev by a large margin 8-2 on Tuesday. After suffering a 0-2 loss in the opening round, he adjusted his strategy.
In the next three rounds, he danced around the ring like a guerrilla, darting in and out, creating angles and throwing cold punches. The strategy worked perfectly as was witnessed in the last three rounds that the Russian didn’t score a single point in the entire six minutes.
The dark horse of the day was born when Zhang wept the World Championships runner-up 8-2.
In the just concluded two second-round matches, China’s featherweight Yang Li and lightweight Qing Hu both outpointed their opponents, making them the fourth and fifth Chinese boxers into the Quarter Finals.
Shiming Zou is a two-time light flyweight world champion. He will be competing in his second fight on Saturday.
By the time his fight is over, there will be six Chinese boxers in the Quarter Finals of the Beijing Olympic boxing match.
Zhenyu Li is a Beijing-based Olympic journalist. He can be reached at zhenyuli_cn@sina.com
