We’re going to be watching greatness in the making as 19-year-old New Jersey native Shakur Stevenson goes for the most fantastic win of his life in the men’s bantamweight finals at the Rio Olympics.
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RIO DE JANEIRO Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez won the men’s Olympic bantamweight gold medal on Saturday and ended US hopes of their first men’s champion since 2004.
Forty-seven past American men have won the gold in Olympic boxing. The 19-year-old Stevenson, meanwhile, was all business.
The stakes could not be higher for the remaining boxers in Rio. The 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal featured three U.S. vs. Cuba battles in the championship round.
The gold was Cuba’s second of the boxing tournament after Julio Cesar La Cruz secured the light-heavyweight title on Thursday.
1 p.m. – Women’s flyweight gold medal bout 1:15 p.m.
While the last American man to win Olympic gold didn’t face a Cuban in his Athens run, he has been happy to provide guidance to Stevenson throughout his Olympic journey. As Ward prepared for his Olympic gold medal bout, he spoke to 1996 Olympic champion David Reid and Stevenson has stayed in contact with Ward as he prepares for the biggest fight of his life.
Stevenson won the Youth Olympics gold in 2014 but could not repeat that success in the men’s competition in 2016.
It was the first amateur loss of Stevenson’s career as he was a flawless 25-0 internationally coming into the bout. Nico Hernandez won bronze in the light flyweight division on Friday, giving the American men two medals for the first time since those 2004 Games, when middleweight Andre Dirrell also won bronze.
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Shakur Stevenson, right, fights Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez.
