Nervous Navarro wakes up in time to win
Nervous Navarro wakes up in time to win
SYDNEY (AFP): Jose Navarro got a wake-up call halfway through
his first Olympic fight and rallied in time here Tuesday to
maintain the United States' unbeaten run and pursue a family goal
for a gold medal.
The U.S. is 7-0 after almost four days' competition and
working towards their anticipated showdown with Cuban boxers in
the medal rounds next week.
Flyweight Navarro was level on points with Indonesia's
Hermensen Ballo and making little impression before he was urged
by his corner to up the tempo and take the fight to his opponent.
Navarro, from the tough South Central precinct of Los Angeles,
close to the neighborhood of Olympic gold medalists Oscar de la
Hoya and Paul Gonzalez, picked it up to register a 16-10
decision.
Cuban rival Manuel Mantilla Rodriguez set up a second round
meeting with Rumanian Bogdan Dobrescu with a 20-8 points verdict
over South Korean Kim Tai-kyu.
Elsewhere, Cuban middleweight Juan Hernandez, who had his
world championship final loss to Russian Timour Gaidalov reversed
last year in Houston after a protest against the judging, breezed
past Gabon's Stephane Nzu Mba with the referee stopping the fight
1:32 into the third round.
Navarro's brother Carlos was beaten by eventual bronze
medalist Floyd Mayweather at the 1996 Olympic boxing trials, and
Jose is looking to bring home a medal to his family of three
brothers and eight sisters.
Carlos was in the crowd bellowing support and instructions to
his brother, but their father missed the flight from Los Angeles
for the fight.
"If I'm going to win that gold medal, it's not going to be
only for me, it will be for him as well," said Navarro.
Navarro said he had learned a great deal from Tuesday's fight.
"I picked it up in the third round, I felt a little tense in
the beginning, but then I got a little looser during the fight
and it helped," he said.
"My coaches told me to pick it up, it was tied up at the end
of the second round.
"This is the Olympics, I have no choice take it up or I'm out.
"Fifteen years is no joke. I have been waiting and boxing for
that long and how can I let it slip out of my hands after just
two rounds?"
Navarro grew up close to the neighborhood of Olympic gold
medalists, 1992 lightweight Oscar de la Hoya and 1984 light-
flyweight Paul Gonzalez.
"You hear all about those guys in those days, that's what I
wanted to be a boxer like Oscar de la Hoya," said Navarro.
"My neighborhood was tougher than theirs, South Central, no
doubt about that. It's a ghetto, a little bit rough. It was tough
for me to play in my front yard.
"Really, I had no time to do that, because I was in the gym
and at school.
Michael Roche, the sole Irish boxer in the tournament, was
outclassed by Turkey's Firat Karagollu, who won on points 17-4 in
a first round middleweight contest.
France had two victories in the afternoon session. Flyweight
Jerome Thomas was too polished for Australian Erle Wiltshire
winning 13-1 and middleweight Esther Frederic came from behind to
eliminate Russian Andrey Mishin 16-11.
"There was a lot of tension in the training room before the
fight. When I came out there was great vocal support for the
Australian, but in the fight I was superior," said Thomas, who
sparred with Wiltshire before the Games in Noumea.