BANGKOK, 10 July 2003 — Olympic light welterweight champion Kharimzhanov Nurzhan became the third big-name fighter to exit the world amateur championships after a surprise defeat to Thailand’s Manus Boonjamnong yesterday.
Manus thrilled his home crowd with a 21-11 points victory over the Kazakh fighter, who lifted the Olympic title in Sydney three years ago.
Nurzhan was the third top-ranked boxer in less than 24 hours to go out at the quarterfinal stage after two defending champions from Cuba suffered defeats.
“Manus’s performance was fantastic but we weren’t surprised by his victory,” said Thai coach Ismael Salas, a former Cuban boxing champion who defected and moved to Thailand 10 years ago.
“He was very confident in the lead up to this bout and we’d been looking at how we could beat Nurzhan from watching his previous fights. Nurzhan is very tall so we had to go for low blows to win the points and Manus did the job very well.”
Cuba’s world light flyweight champion Yan Barthelemy Varela fell to Zou Shiming of China in an earlier fight yesterday, while compatriot Guillermo Rigondeaux, the reigning world and Olympic bantamweight champion lost on Tuesday to Azerbaijan’s Agasi Mamedov. The 24-year-old from Baku beat Rigondeaux 16-13 to book a place in tomorrow’s semifinals.
“I fought him before in Sydney and he won there so it was my turn this time,” Mamedov told Reuters. “I’ve been ready for this competition for a long time and now I’ll to be going for the title.” Zou used counterpunching tactics to register the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
China, where boxing has only been taken seriously as a sport for a decade, are competing in their first world championships with an eye on grooming gold medalists for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Success came quicker than they imagined with Zou, from the southwest province of Guizhou, outpointing Barteleny 22-15.
The loss was the second serious reversal for the Cubans, who lifted seven of the 12 gold medals on offer at the 2001 championships in Northern Ireland. The 22-year-old Zou, whose previous best result was a silver medal in the 2001 East Asian Games in Japan, was not surprised at his win. “My coaches and I watched video of his fights and worked out tactics. I thought I could win,” said Zou, who took up boxing in 1997.
“It is fantastic to beat the defending world champion. This win gives me added confidence to go on and take the gold medal.”
Zou will fight Dydi Rudole of Slovakia in the quarterfinals today. Rudole inflicted the ninth defeat on the demoralized American squad by stopping Israel Crespo in the third round. t will award him a $50,000 bonus, one of the largest sums of money ever awarded to a Thai athlete.
