Ali magic eclipses boxing bouts

Sydney: Muhammad Ali dropped by and stole the show on Saturday as the Olympic boxing ring saw its first action with a new four-round fight format and an American victory.

The arrival of "The Greatest", in the middle of a bantamweight bout between a Georgian and Armenian, drew a huge roar from the crowd who immediately lost interest in the action in the ring.

Ali embraced his former professional heavyweight opponent Joe Bugner, working ringside as a television commentator, and then shuffled slowly round the ring to a seat next to International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) officials.

Television crews trailed him while fans abandoned their seats and rushed to the front of the auditorium to take photographs of the former world and Olympic champion.

Meanwhile, Georgia's Theimuraz Khurtsilava and Armenia's Aram Ramazyan ignored the commotion and carried on with their private battle. The Georgian won 12-9.

Ali posed for more photographs and, as fans clamoured for his attention, slowly walked over to the padded surrounds of the officials' enclosure and hugged two small boys lifted towards him through the crowd.

He stayed to watch Clarence Vinson, the first of the 12-strong US team in action, beat French 1996 Olympian Rachid Bouaita 9-2 and then, accompanied by his old friend Howard Bingham, left the arena.

An emotional moment for Vinson

"It's an unbelievable feeling," said Vinson, who had met Ali before in the United States but was still awed by meeting him again on a far bigger stage."Today I was coming here and I had a feeling that I never felt before," he said.

"Tears just came to my eyes because I finally realised that, through all the hard work, it paid off. I never dreamed of coming this far in boxing." He said that having Ali watching him was a dream come true. "I always look at some of his old fights and stuff. It was like he was here for my fight. He just gave me a look like he wanted to punch me. So I gave it back to him."

Head coach Tom Mustin said he was "real pleased with how he (Vinson) closed it out in the third and fourth rounds" after Bouaita ended the second just 3-2 down.

"Starting off with a win sets a tone, nobody's going to be wanting to be the first one to lose. That (the win) could very well get us on a good roll. I think that by Ali wanting to talk to him after the bout, giving him some encouraging words, that's going to help him through the tournament."

Olympic bouts have in the past been fought over three rounds of three minutes but a new format of four two-minute rounds has been introduced for Sydney.

With a neat touch of irony, the opening fight was stopped a minute into the third round when Australian referee Gerardus Mevissen ruled South Korean Suk-Hwan Cho to be outclassed. Uzbekistan's Alisher Rahimov, the Asian champion, had been 17-1 ahead at the time.

Two other bantamweight bouts were stopped early, with Russian former world champion Raimkoul Malakhbekov, the 1996 bronze medallist, outclassing Argentina's Ceferino Labarda 17-2 in three rounds. Kyrghyzstan's Taalaibek Kadiraliev beat Cameroonian Ngoudjo Herman 14-5 after a third-round stoppage for a head blow.