2012 OLYMPICS: ZOU SHIMING WINS SECOND GOLD AMIDST CONTROVERSY
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 12 Aug 2012
China's Zou Shiming duplicated his Olympic gold medal win in London, defeating Thailand's Kaeo Pongprayoon on a score of 13-10 to win the men's light flyweight division. But the outcome was greeted with the common controversy hounding Olympic boxing.
Zou fought with his famous dirty tactics, including running, holding and locking Pongprayoon. The style worked to Zou?s advantage when he led the first round, 2-1, then upped the score to 6-4 after two rounds. The referee imposed a warning in the third round which gave Pongprayoon two points. But later in the final canto, the Thai boxer was also given an unjustifiable warning, like that of Mark Anthony Barriga.
The crowd sympathized with Pongprayoon and booed Zou's announcement as the gold medal winner.
Enroute to the finals, Zou defeated Paddy Barnes of Ireland in the semifinal round. The judges scored the contest 15-15 after three rounds but Zou was given the verdict on countback. Trailing 11-8 after two rounds, Barnes rallied on to pile up more points but not quite enough to win.
Pongprayoon edged David Ayrapetyan of Russia, 13-12 in the semis. At the 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships, Barriga scored one of the biggest upsets when he won over Barnes. Last May, Barriga defeated Russia's AIBA World Championships silver medalist Ayrapetyan at the Sydney Jackson Memorial Tournament in Uzbekistan.
"Every match was difficult, both for me and my opponents," said Zou. "Second gold medal is great for me. I'm enjoying it."
Zou was known as the number one fighter in China, especially after he claimed the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and the gold medal in his home country at the 2008 Olympics. He pocketed three titles from 2005 to 2011 at the World Championships, which put a lot of pressure for him to win the gold again this year. It will probably be his final Olympics.
Zou failed to collect overwhelming victories in his three previous fights. "There was too much pressure. Luckily I won the match after all. All I want to do now is to have a very very good rest, " said Zou .
Zou defeated Yosbany Soto, 14-11 in the round of 16, before winning over Barriga detractor Birzhan Zhakypov of Kazakhstan, 13-10 in the quarterfinals.
His parents enrolled him in a private school to study wushu but he thought wushu emphasised form over fighting and instead he shifted to boxing, which he considered as explosive and free. He fell in love with boxing and became China?s most successful boxer.
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