Friday, September 29, 2000
Williams beats Cuban in slugfest
Remarkable victory sends Cincinnatian into finals
By Paul Daugherty
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SYDNEY -- One of the most incredible bouts in Olympic history sent Ricardo Williams Jr. to the gold-medal round. Williams outpointed Cuban Diogenes Luna, 42-41, Friday night to reach Sunday's light welterweight final.
The fight was a war from the opening bell.
“Right now,I'm kind of at a loss for words,” Williams said. “I gave it everything I had. I'm so happy it was enough.”
To put this final score in perspective, consider: A fighter scoring more than 20 points in a four-round Olympic fight is considered to have found the target a lot. Five judges award one point for each punch they judge to land to the front of the head, or the body, though some judges this year have not been giving credit for body blows.
Williams and Luna went at it immediately. The Cuban went ahead early, throwing so many short lefts and rights -- and connecting with so many -- it was hard to see how the judges could count them adequately. Luna led 12-10 after Round 1, and 25-19 after Round 2.
The Cincinnatian had said after his quarterfinal win that the Cuban could be hit. He proved himself correct in Round 3, scoring 16 points. You could say Williams scored in flurries, except the entire two minutes was an extended flurry. He scored 16 points in the round.
With about a minute left in the fight, both boxers were becoming arm weary. Williams led 38-33, a safe edge with a minute left in any other fight. But Luna stormed back, scoring with both hands, to lead 40-39 with about 30 seconds left.
Williams resumed the offensive, tying the score at 40 before landing a left-right combination that made it 42-40. At that point, he looked to his father in the crowd. Ricardo Williams Sr. was telling his son to “Move, move, move.”
“I took a deep breath and put my track shoes on,” Williams said. He danced out the last 15 seconds, just trying to stay away from a Luna combination. Luna hit him once, but it wasn't enough.
The 42-41 win puts Williams in the gold medal match against Mahamad Abdullaev of Uzbekistan. The two have met once previously, Abdullaev winning. Williams has said that loss motivated him to train harder and take boxing more seriously.
“I've been waiting for this (gold medal) fight for my whole life,” said Williams.
A second American boxer will be going to the finals. Rocky Juarez had a big third round and outpointed Kamil Dzamalutdinov of Russia at 125 pounds. The last American semifinalist, Jermain Taylor, lost to Yermakhan Ibraimov of Kazakstan in a 156-pound semifinal.
American boxers have not won more than one gold medal since the 1988 Olympics, when they won three.
Four Cubans will box in finals, including heavyweight Felix Savon, trying for a third Olympic gold.
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