USA Boxing’s “Tiger” Johnson Beaten In Quarterfinals Friday

The momentum for the U.S. men’s boxing team at the Olympics had been growing, but now the competition has gotten stronger making winning tougher, too. And, Welterweight medal contender Delante “Tiger” Johnson found that out Friday afternoon in Tokyo against his Cuban opponent.

Johnson lost a lopsided 5-0 decision to former, two-time Cuban Bronze medalist, Roniel Iglesias, in their three round quarterfinal bout at the Kokugikan Arena,

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Roniel Iglesias derrotó al representante de los Estados Unidos Delante Johnson por decisión unánime de los jueces (5-0). El pinareño ya está en semifinales. #ACubaPonleCorazón #SeguimosGanando #PinardelRío pic.twitter.com/zUZuGq0qrY

— TelePinar 🇨🇺 (@TelePinar) July 30, 2021

The southpaw Iglesias dominated the Cleveland native Johnson from the beginning and lost only one round overall on two of the five judges cards. “Tiger” was being urged by his corner that he needed an impressive third round, if not a stoppage, to win. However, Iglesias, who was the Bronze medalist at the ’08 and ’12 Summer Games, was too slick and continued to avoid most of Johnson’s big punches, while landing some right jabs of his own.

The loss derailed the hopes of a U.S. men’s boxing medal at Welterweight for the first time, since Kenneth Gould shared a Bronze in the 1988 Seoul Games.

Iglesias will fight for a spot in the Gold medal match in a semi-final against Russian Andrey Zamkovoy.

Hear us breaking down the USA Boxing medal chances, male and female, for this weekend on our “Big Fight Weekend” podcast with Marquis Johns and Gayle Falkenthal joining me,

Meanwhile, the U.S. still has several fighters in the running for medals, if not Gold, on the men’s side.

That includes, Duke Ragan of Cincinnati who was in complete control in his three-round Featherweight unanimous decision Wednesday over Kazakhstan’s Serik Termizhanov.

Ragan, who is favored to fight for the Gold, is the first United States men’s boxer to advance into the Featherweight quarterfinals, since Ricardo Juarez won the Silver Medal in that division at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.

Ragan will fight Ireland’s Kurt Walker in his quarterfinal Saturday afternoon in Tokyo.

Heavily favored Lightweight Keyshawn Davis of Norfolk, VA, who like Ragan has turned pro and won fights while being allowed to comeback and fight as an amateur in the Olympics, will be in action in the round of 16 against Sofiane Oumiha of France also on Saturday afternoon in Tokyo.

In his first fight, Davis took apart Enrico La Cruz of the Netherlands Sunday with an effective jab and superior hand speed on his way to 5-0 unanimous decision to move into the next round.

Also, in contention is Super Heavyweight (over 201 lb.) Richard Torrez of Tulare, CA, who scored a shutout, unanimous decision over Algeria’s Chaouib Bouloudinats in the round of 16. Torrez scored a first round knockdown on the Algerian and never looked back, impressively winning each round and getting the verdict 5-0.

Torrez is the U.S. team captain and will now face Cuban Danier Pero in the Super Heavyweight quarterfinals Sunday afternoon.