Rising South African star Jackson Chauke cruised through the quarterfinals of the Commonwealth Games flyweight boxing competition in Melbourne on Wednesday.
In the semifinal, he will face super-confident Ugandan Martin Mubiru who declared that he was unbeatable.
”I’m on my way to the gold medal,” Mubiru trumpeted after his 26-16 points victory over Kenya’s Duncan Murai.
”I had no problem. I was too good with my technique.”
But Chauke may disagree, especially after his lopsided 27-11 points win over Guyana’s Dexter Marques.
Marques simply had no answer to his opponent’s well-drilled onslaught which saw him race to a 5-1 lead after the opening round and dominate the next three 8-3, 8-4, 6-3.
In the most exciting bout of the morning, India’s Jitender Kumar also advanced to the medal round when he just scraped in 17-15 against Botswana’s Lechedzani Luza.
The pair traded punches in a tight, low-scoring affair which almost saw the Indian blow it after losing his balance and falling on his back in the final round, with Luza landing knees first on his chest.
Kumar will now fight England’s Don Broadhurst who emerged victorious in an old-fashioned slugfest against gritty Northern Irishman Ryan Lindberg.
Broadhurst led throughout the bout but his opponent kept coming at him, landing several combinations in the last two rounds to close the gap after trailing 16-8 at the end of the first two rounds.
The two fighters split the points 10-10 in the third with the fourth going Broadhurst’s way by a single point to see him take the bout 36-27.
”It’s good [guaranteeing a bronze] because I didn’t want to go home empty-handed,” Broadhurst said.
”But I’m not satisfied yet. I want the gold medal.”
The featherweight bouts saw the home nations England and Wales guarantee themselves at least bronze medals but Scotland missed out when Jason Hastie was decisively beaten by Pakistan’s Lassi Mehrullah 25-11.
Welshman Darren Edwards was the first of the two British fighters to qualify when he thrashed Malaysia’s Eddy Kalai 36-14.
”The first three rounds were great,” Edwards said. ”My opponent landed a couple of lucky punches in the fourth.”
England’s Stephen Smith had an even easier progression when his opponent Diwakar Prasad of India retired.
”My coach told me to retire as I had made some mistakes and did not want to be disqualified,” he said.
Smith’s win was greeted with a huge roar from the crowd at Melbourne’s Exhibition Centre.
”I feel Australian being here with all the crowd I’ve got,” he said.
There was also joy for the host nation when Luke Jackson earned a berth in the medal round after defeating Uganda’s Sarif Bogere 18-12, fighting back after losing the opening round.
”I knew it would be a tough fight. It was hard, so it was good to win,” Jackson said. ”My opponent came out strong so I had to fight back.” – Sapa-AFP