Google News First gold for Russian representatives!
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Only seven fights were held in today's program of the boxing tournament at the Games in Tokyo. We saw a total of six semifinals (women's categories up to 60 kg and men's categories up to 52 and 75 kg). We watched the finals in the men's competition, more precisely in the lightweight category (-57 kg).
The gold medal was won by the representative of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Albert Batyrgaziev, who defeated the American Duke Ragan by a divided referee's decision. The 23-year-old Russian has also played three professional boxing matches in his career (3-0), but the gold from Tokyo is the crown of his short career so far.
All three opponents from the quarterfinals to the gold medal, Batyrgaziev won by a split decision (3-2), but victories against fighters such as Cuban Alvarez and American Ragan are a great success and surprise.
Professional boxer
The 23-year-old Ragan is also a professional boxer (4-0) so we watched the finals of the two pros.
By winning a gold medal, Albert Batyrgaziev made history as the first professional boxer to win an Olympic gold medal. The first round brings a slightly more aggressive approach by the Russian boxer while Duke Ragan was too passive to come to win the round.
Four of the five referees scored the first round in favor of Batyrgaziev while the Azerbaijani referee awarded the round to Ragan, hinting that the fight would most likely go to a split refereeing decision. The second round brings an awakened Ragan.
The American forced the Russian representative to fail, and with his right hand, he brilliantly countered his attempts. However, four referees again see Albert Batyrgaziev as a better fighter, and this time the referee from Kazakhstan was on Ragan’s side.
The U.S. fighter needed a knockout in the third round to get to the gold. Although Ragan boxed his best round when it came to the final fight, he was far from winning by knockout. Four referees awarded him the third round, but Ragan eventually won 29-28 on two referee cards (Azerbaijani and Kazakh), which was not enough for him as the Russian won the favor of the three remaining referees(30-27, 29 -28 x2).
Ragan has failed to become the first American boxer to win Olympic gold since 2004 and Andrea Ward. Keyshawn Davies in the 63 kg category and Richard Torrez in the super heavyweight category are the remaining American representatives in the men's competition.
Davies has reached the semifinals, and Torreza is waiting for the final against the favored Jalolov