The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 12) -- 2007 Chicago world champion Rau'shee Warren of the United States lost 9-8 to his predecessor, 2005 Mianyang (China) champion Lee Ok-sung of the Republic of Korea, in a round of 32 bout at the Workers' Gymnasium on Tuesday.
"He was the world champion in 2007, and I was the world champion in 2005. I beat him three years ago. I was a little bit worried before the bout, but I think I'm psychologically good. I enjoyed the match, and I won," commented Lee after the game.
When the clock ticked into the last 30 seconds of the last round, Warren started hiding from Lee, though Lee was leading 9-8. Despite efforts by his coaches and fans to get the message through to him that he was behind, Warren did not understand the situation until 10 seconds were left on the timer. It was just too late.
"No, I didn't know I was down. I thought I was up, when my coach started telling me to start throwing punches," said Warren after game, "there was so much going on in the crowd. When I just stood there at the end, I thought I was up."
The other gold favorite saw no threat today. Gold medalist at the 2003 World Championships in Bangkok and silver medalist at the 2007 edition in Chicago, Somjit Jongjohor of Thailand had an easy 6-1 victory over Guatemala's Eddie Valenzuela.
The Bantamweight division saw Russia's Sergey Vodopyanov, the gold medalist in Chicago, win over Puerto Rico's McJoe Arroyo Acevedo 10-5. Arroyo Acevedo was the bronze medal winner at the same tournament. The silver medalist at the Chicago tournament, Mongolian Badar-Uugan Enkhbat, beat 18-year-old Mexican Oscar Valdez 15-4. The other bronze winner in Chicago, Great Britain's Joe Murray, was defeated by China's Gu Yu 17-7. Gu came in fifth at the same tournament.
