Richard Torrez Jr. is set to pull off what no American boxer has pulled off since Tyrell Biggs in 1984. The 22-year-old is in touching distance to win a gold medal in the men’s super-heavyweight tournament.
The American boxing prodigy faced a tad of trouble from Kazakhistan’s Kamshybek Kunkabayev, but Torrez proved to be too much to handle for the 29-year-old.
Torrez first shook up the Kazakhistan prospect in the opening round. A barrage of punches in later rounds ended up crushing Kunkabayev’s nose and a huge gash opened up on the bridge. The match referee had to put an end to the contest in the final round.
The way the American star has been steamrolling over his opponents at the Games, it might be coming home this year.
Advancing and dancing.@richardtorrez21 will fight for gold in the super heavyweight boxing finals. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/WBFsws0kk4
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) August 4, 2021
After adding another win to his resume, Torrez said, “I’m just going to keep doing all I can to be on that gold medal podium. I’m going to do all I can to be able to go back home to say, ‘Dad, we did it.’”
Here are all the fights that went down today:
Women’s flyweight (Semifinals)
- Buse Naz Cakiroglu (Turkey) def. Huang Hsiao-wen (Chinese Taipei)
- Stoyka Krasteva (Bulgaria) def. Tsukimi Namiki (Japan)
Women’s welterweight (Semifinals)
- Busenaz Surmeneli (Turkey) def. Lovlina Borgohain (India)
- Gu Hong (China) def. Oshae Jones (United States)
Men’s super-heavyweight (Semifinals)
- Bakhodir Jalolov (Uzbekistan) def. Frazer Clarke (Great Britain)
- Richard Torrez Jr (United States) def. Kamshybek Kunkabayev (Kazakhstan)
Men’s light heavyweight (Final)
- Arlen Lopez (Cuba) def. Ben Whittaker (Great Britain)