American, Cuban boxers maintain supremacy

Sydney: Iranian Bijan Batmani was outclassed by America's finest featherweight Ricardo "Rocky" Juarez on Monday as the Olympic boxing tournament hit its stride after being delayed by a lost bus.

Juarez and teammate Jeff Lacy both reached the second round of their draws, making it six wins out of six bouts for a US team with high expectations.

The Cubans also remained unbeaten with five through and another fighting later in the evening as classy middleweight Jorge Gutierrez beat Thailand's battling but overpowered Somchai Cimlum 20-11.

World champion Juarez stopped Batmani, his name conjuring up an image of the American comic strip hero that his fighting skills failed to live up to, after 52 seconds of the third round when the Iranian was deemed outclassed.Juarez had led 15-0 at that point.

But US head coach Tom Mustin said he was still surprised that Juarez had been so far ahead on points. "This guy seemed to be pretty rock solid," he said. He kept moving forward, I didn't know Rocky was up as much as he was up. I thought he pulled away at the end of the second round and that's when he started cooking."

Middleweight Lacy, the hardest hitter in the squad, continued the United States' winning run in the ring by demolishing Brazilian Cleiton Conceicao in another fight that failed to go the distance.

Conceicao reeled under a series of thudding body shots and took a standing eight count at the end of the second round. The fight ended 58 seconds into the third. "I just wanted to strike some fear in these middleweights' minds that, hey, this guy's no pushover," said Lacy. "The time has come and I'm ready to go."

Controversy in featherweight bout

There was a minor controversy when Algerian featherweight Nouzeddine Medjehoud had his head guard knocked off twice against South African Jeffrey Mathebula. His coaches claimed that the South African had hit him after the head guard was off but would not be making an official protest against the 10-5 win.

Australian featherweight James Swan was ready to go and went eventually, but only after having his entry delayed for half an hour when the bus taking him and other boxers from the Athletes' Village to Darling Harbour got lost.



(c) Reuters Limited.