USA Boxing’s world championships squad opened the 2015 AIBA Elite Men’s World Championships with two strong victories on Tuesday at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Doha, Qatar.
Heavyweight Joshua Temple (St. Louis, Mo.) put an emphatic close to the first session of the tournament with a first round TKO in his opening bout while middleweight Anthony Campbell (Covington, Tenn.) recorded a decision victory in Tuesday’s afternoon action. Light flyweight Nico Hernandez (Wichita, Kansas) lost his opening bout of the tournament in the final U.S. contest of the day.
Temple took on Pakistan’s Mehmood Hussan in his 2015 World Championships opener and he showed off his patented punching power early in the match. The American boxer floored Hussan twice in the opening round, forcing the referee to call a halt to the bout at the end of the first stanza. The TKO victory advances Temple on to a second round match-up with 2013 World Championships silver medalist Evegny Tishchenko on Thursday evening.
“I dropped him with a left hook and then jumped right back on him,” Temple said. “I felt really comfortable in there. I listened to my coaches, stayed loose on my feet and then dropped the bomb.”
Campbell was the first American boxer to take the ring in the 2015 World Championships and he set a winning tone in his bout with Italy’s Salvatore Cavallaro. After a slow start, Campbell began to pick up the pace in the second round and the match went in to the third round with the two boxers tied at one round a piece. The American got stronger as the match wore on, winning the third round on all three judges’ scorecards to take the middleweight bout by a 2-1 margin over Cavallaro. Campbell moves on to a second round contest with Ecuador’s Marlo Suarez Delgado in Thursday’s afternoon session.
Hernandez opened evening action in his bout with European Games silver medalist Brendan Irvine of Ireland. He fell short in the light flyweight contest, dropping a 3-0 decision to Irvine.
Light heavyweight Steven Nelson (Omaha, Neb.) will be the lone American boxer to compete in Wednesday’s action. He will face Morocco’s Hassan Saada in the evening session at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Doha.
Coaches Andrews Soto (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Kay Koroma (Burke, Va.) are leading the United States team in Qatar.
For more information about the 2015 Elite Men’s World Championships, go to www.aiba.org.
Tuesday’s U.S. Results
108 lbs: Brendan Irvine, IRL , dec. Nico Hernandez, Wichita, Kansas/USA
165 lbs: Anthony Campbell, Covington, Tenn./USA dec. Salvatore Cavallaro, ITA, 2-1
201 lbs: Joshua Temple, St. Louis, Mo./USA won on TKO over Mehmood Hussan, TKO-1 (3:00)
