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Saturday, September 16
Craig, Vinson triumph for U.S. squad
Associatd Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Dante Craig felt the thrill of Olympic
victory, but the pain of losing his infant son remains.
Fighting for the first time in five months because of surgery on
his right hand, the 22-year-old Craig of Cincinnati stopped Fadel
Showban Showban of Egypt when their 147-pound fight was stopped in
the fourth round on the 15-point rule Saturday night.
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.
Assistant U.S. coach Candy Lopez told him before the fight he
"had big shoulders and could carry a lot of weight on them,"
Craig said. "That's what I did tonight. I still mourn the death of
my son (who died at the age of one-month in January). "It still
hurts me every day to think of it."
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.
He was the second U.S. boxer to advance in the tournament at the
Sydney Exhibition Centre.
|  | | Clarence Vinson, right, rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the first round. |
Clarence Vinson of Washington, D.C., outpointed Rachid Bouaita
of France, a 1996 Olympian, at 119 pounds Saturday afternoon.
Vinson's victory was sweetened by congratulations from Muhammad
Ali, who attended the opening session.
"It was like a dream come true," said the 22-year-old Vinson,
who will box Taalaibek Kadiraliev of Kyrgystan. Kadiraliev stopped
Ngoudjo Herman of Cameroon in the third round.
The 5-foot-2 Vinson fell behind 2-1 in the first round against
his 5-7 opponent, then he took control by applying constant
pressure.
"The guy was real tall and I felt I had as though I had a
better chance on the inside than on on the outside," Vinson said.
Vinson took a 3-2 lead over the 1996 Olympian after two rounds,
then increased his lead over the next two rounds by landing several
right hands and a couple of good left hooks.
This is the first Olympics in which bouts were scheduled for
four 2-minute rounds instead of three 3-minute 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).
The first bout of the tournament also was stopped on the
15-point rule. Alisher Rahimov of Uzbekistan won 17-1 after three
rounds. Rahimov's 16th and 17th scoring blows were landed just
before the bell ended the round.
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ALSO SEE
First-round boxing results
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