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Boxing’s Next Great Ali Qualifies for Olympics

Posted March 17, 2008 at 05:23 PM by Michael J. Sedor

Section: Beijing 2008, Beijing Results, Events, Boxing, Featured Writers, Michael Sedor, Columns/Blogs

Brooklyn’s Sadam Ali became the first Team U.S.A. boxer to qualify for the Beijing Olympics via the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Qualifying Tournament. (Five American boxers had already qualified during the 2007 World Championship competition.) Ali was the only Team U.S.A. fighter to qualify this afternoon. Super Heavyweight Michael “The Bounty” Hunter II won but must also win tomorrow to qualify while Heavyweight Christopher Downs lost his first match of the tournament. Thankfully, Downs’ Olympic dream is not over; he will fight Brazil’s Washington Silva on Tuesday for a Beijing berth.

The flashy Sadam Ali stopped Juan Nicolas Cuellar in the third round, outscoring the Argentine by twenty points, 22-2, thus invoking amateur boxing’s mandatory stoppage rule. Sadam Ali was a veritable whirlwind of swift movement and lightning quick blows. Click back to our earlier “World Kid” Ali post for a YouTube idea of what this fight might have looked like.

Ali jumped out to a blink-and-you-missed-it early first round 6-1 lead and maintained his dominance until the stoppage, never once allowing his outclassed opponent back into the fight. Ali confidently commented after the match that “boxing actually worked until I decided to go get him so I can 20-point him. That’s the only reason I switched my style from boxing to going to get him. He was right there for me to hit him.” Ali’s assuredness will serve him well in the ring this August. He can wrap up the Americas Qualifier gold medal tomorrow against Cuban Yordanis Hernadez.

Los Angeles’ Michael Hunter II also 20 pointed his opponent, Virgin Islander Clayton Laurent, stopping him 25-5 early in the fourth round. There is only one Super Heavyweight ticket to Beijing at stake in Trinidad so Hunter must defeat Cuban Robert Alfonso Acea tomorrow to make it to China. More on his Olympic story tomorrow.

For more info on Tuesday afternoon’s fights click here.