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First strike Vinson gives U.S. first victory
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Winning his first Olympic bout would have been good enough for Clarence Vinson. But having Muhammad Ali around to congratulate him made it even better. Vinson's Olympic boxing debut Saturday was an emotional one from the time he rode to the arena until Ali greeted him after his win over France's Rachid Bouaita. "I was coming here and I had feelings I never had before," the U.S. 119-pounder said. "Tears came into my eyes. I'm here at an Olympics. I never thought I'd get here." The moment didn't overwhelm Vinson, though, who trailed after the first round but scored the last eight points of the fight to win 9-2 over Bouaita, who was fighting in his second Olympics. Ali, who had entered the arena a few fights earlier, stayed around to watch Vinson and then came up to him and gestured to the boxer, as if to say he had done a good job. "It was like a dream come true," Vinson said of Ali's gesture. Vinson's win was important not only because it advanced him to a second round match against Taalaibek Kadiraliev of Kyrgystan, who stopped Ngoudjo Herman of Cameroon in the third round. It also gave the 12-member U.S. team a win in the first American fight of the Olympics. "I think it's going to give the other guys a lot of confidence," U.S. coach Tom Mustin said. Vinson, who at 5-foot-2 gave away five inches to the Frenchman, needed to work inside to get his win and he was able to do so after a round of trying to figure out what to do best.
Bouaita was no slouch, having advanced to the quarterfinals in the 1996 Games, and took a 2-1 lead after the first round in the computer scoring that gives points only if three of five ringside judges agree on a punch that lands. Bouaita would get no more points the rest of the fight, though, as Vinson adjusted and pressured his opponent while landing effectively with left hooks and right hands. "The guy was real tall and I felt as though I had a better chance on the inside than on the outside," Vinson said. "My coach told me to get in there and be more aggressive." Vinson, whose uncle, Mark Johnson, is a former IBF junior batamweight champion, was not considered one of the top American medal hopes coming into the games. He fights in a crowded division that features several veteran boxers. But the energy level at which he fought the final two rounds gave his coach the hope that high altitude training in Colorado may pay off in some late round wins for American boxers. "The first bout gives you the chance to see if all your hard work paid off," Mustin said. "We're really strong the last two rounds. I think it's probably because of the altitude training." The first session of boxing at the Sydney Exhibition Center drew a good, but not capacity, crowd, which witnessed a few new twists in a sport that struggles with its image in the wake of some Olympic boxing scandals. For the first time, boxers fought four, 2-minute rounds instead of three rounds at three minutes. They also fought under new rules that call for a fight to end early if one boxer is ahead by 15 points. That happened in the first fight of the day, when Alisher Rahimov of Uzbekistan landed a few punches at the bell to end the third round to give him a 17-1 lead and the win over Cho Suk-hwan of South Korea. Dante Craig was the second U.S. boxer to advance in the tournament after beating Fadel Showban Showban of Egypt when their 147-pound fight was stopped in the fourth round on the 15-point rule. It was Craig's first fight in five months because of surgery on his right hand. Craig, who led only 3-1 after the first round, led 17-2 when the match was halted. "I just had to get used to being in the ring again," Craig said. Craig opened up in the second round, forced Showban Showban to take a standing 8-count and built a 10-1 lead in the second round. Landing with long rights, Craig built the lead to 16-2 after three rounds. Cubans Guillermo Rigondeaux and Roberto Guerra looked sharp in winning. The left-handed Rigondeaux, at 20 the youngest member of the Cuban team, knocked out Moez Zemzemi of Tunisia only 23 seconds after the opening bell. Rigondeaux scored the first of two knock downs with the first punch of the fight, a left hand. Guerra peppered Ellis Chibuye of Zambia with right hands and won an 18-4 decision at 147 pounds in the afternoon. Veteran internationalists Dorel Simion and Olteanu George-Crinu of Romania also advanced. Simion, European 147-pound champion stopped Ruben Fuchu of Puerto Rico in the third round on the day card. George-Crinu, world 119-pound champion, was too aggressive for Artour Mikaelian of Greece and won 7-2 at night. Raimkoul Malakhbekov of Russia, a bronze medalist at the 1996 Olympics, landed a three-punch combination late in the third round and stopped Ceferino Labarda of Argentina on the 15-point rule (17-2).
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