🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 – August 10
Cuba’s Erislandy Alvarez defeats three-time world champion Oumiha of France for gold
ALVAREZ WINS GOLD
▫️ The promising Cuban boxer outpoints three-time world champion Oumiha of France in the finals
Cuba’s fast-rising 23-year-old pro boxer unbeaten in three fights, Erislandy Alvarez (pictured), won Olympic light-welterweight gold with a 3-2 points decision over French three-time world champion Sofiane Oumiha in what I rated as the main bout of the Paris Olympics finals on Wednesday, August 7.
The victory also earned Alvarez sweet revenge over Oumiha who scored a suspicious win over the Cuban in the light-welterweight finals in last year’s World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Nicknamed “La Amenaza” or The Menace, Alvarez, who hails from Cienfuegos province in Central-Southern Cuba, was dominant, aggressive and landed the more authoritative punches against his 28-year-old opponent.
Alvaz’ victory somewhat made up for the early and bitter elimination of their two-time Olympic champions, light-heavyweight Arlen Lopez and world championships five gold medals winner Julio Cesar La Cruz who lost 3-2 in his first fight to Cuban defector Loren Alfonso now representing Azerbaijan in the heavyweight division. Lopez was beaten by Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak who won gold in Paris by defeating Kazakhstan’s Nurbek Oralbay.
The two Cuban star boxers, both gold medallists in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, were aiming to emulate countrymen, the great heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon, and Hungary’s Laszlo Papp, so far the only boxers to have won three gold medals in the Olympic Games.
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