TOKYO (AP) — The Cuban boxing team has finally lost a fight at the Tokyo Olympics after winning its first 12 bouts and already clinching five medals.
U.S. super heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr. beat Dainier Pero 4:1 in the quarterfinals at the Kokugikan Arena to clinch the American team’s third medal in Tokyo.
Cuba is second only to the United States in gold medals and total medals won in Olympic boxing history and its Tokyo team has been outstanding. The Cubans won three golds and three silver medals in Rio de Janeiro a half-decade ago to finish behind only Uzbekistan in the medals table.
Featherweight Lazaro Alvarez, welterweight Roniel Iglesias and light heavyweight Arlen Lopez all advanced earlier in the evening session in Tokyo before Pero fell short against Torrez. He lost 29-28 on four of the five judges’ cards.
Lopez actually advanced to the light heavyweight gold medal bout by beating a Cuban. Loren Alfonso is representing Azerbaijan. That country over the past several years has signed up several Cuban boxers who couldn’t make their own national team for various reasons.