When he says his “brother”, Hernandez means Tony Losey, a dear friend and aspiring Olympic boxer who seemed to be emerging from a troubled time in his life only to be killed in 2014 in an industrial accident after a tank weighing an estimated 12,000 pounds fell on him. “I knew he was going to throw a lot of punches so my defense had to be great today”.
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“We devised a plan to beat him then, but when we came in (to the USA team), very quickly he learned and adapted”, Walsh said. “After I was making him miss more and more, he just started getting more desperate and throwing more shots that he wasn’t landing”.
“I know [a US medal] is real important for my coaches and USA Boxing and also for me and my family back at home”. “Me and my team have been working since we were little, and now we finally got to a big stage”.
Hernandez will face Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the semifinals Friday with a chance to claim at least a silver medal.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Nico Hernandez realized the enormous odds he faced when he stepped in the ring with Russia’s Vasilii Egorov, the second-seeded light flyweight in the Olympic boxing tournament.
The bout ended with a 3-0 unanimous decision in favor of Dusmatov.
That trust is a major factor in any boxing coach’s success, and Americans were shockingly uninterested in their national team coaches’ advice at previous Olympics. There is no repechage matchup for the losing boxers in the semifinal rounds: both are awarded a bronze medal. He’s not, but I know he’s with me here in spirit. “I’ve known all the kids since they were like 8 years old, so having that relationship, they know I have their best interests at heart”. I knew I wasn’t expected to win.
Stay back, he told Hernandez, use feints and force the smaller Quipo to come to him. “That’s what I did and it worked”.
While Hernandez was happy to win a medal, he said he wants more than a bronze. I’m honored and blessed to be the first fighter ever from Colombia to now compete for a gold medal.
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“I came here to get a gold medal”, Hernandez said, and so I won’t be satisfied until I get the gold”.
