Although world champion Matvey Korobov had not lost a boxing match in five years, the Russian middleweight star was powerless against an Olympic gold medalist.
Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan pulled the biggest upset yet in an Olympic tournament full of topsy-turvy results yesterday, rallying from a final-round deficit to knock off Korobov 10-7.
Artayev won gold at welterweight at the Athens Games, but after moving up in weight, he spent the last two years looking up at Korobov. The Russian was widely expected to cement his position as the world’s most talented amateur boxer in Beijing before embarking on a pro career.
Artayev trailed 7-6 entering the final round of a fairly even bout, but fought the final two minutes with an urgency Korobov could not match. Artayev was repeatedly quicker in exchanges and even Korobov didn’t show any public displeasure with the result, as so many of his teammates have done during Russia’s embarrassing showing in Beijing.
Several middleweights showed rust after a week off between their first preliminary bouts and yesterday’s fights for quarter-final places, but Britain’s James Degale wasn’t among them.
The hard-punching Briton, known as “Chunky,” beat Shawn Estrada 11-5, leaving just three US fighters in the tournament.
Cuban flyweight Andris Laffita and Georgy Balakshin of Russia calmly advanced to the quarter-finals earlier in the session, while Jitender Kumar added another victory to India’s surprising showing with a 13-6 win over Olympic veteran Tulashboy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) announced it had denied a protest filed on behalf of Morocco’s Hicham Mesbahi, whose bout with Botswana’s Khumiso Ikgopoleng was stopped early in the fourth round when officials ruled Mesbahi couldn’t continue with a cut on his nose. Mesbahi was ahead 8-3 on points.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite