Misha Aloian of Russia, who is the #1 seed in the flyweight division at the 2012 Olympics, marchred into the semifinals in rather decisive fashion on Tuesday with a 23-13 win over Jayvier Cintron Ocasio of Puerto Rico.
Aloian too the measure of Cintron in the first round as he built a lead of three points, and continue to draw away after that, Aloian won the second round 8-5, and by that time there was very little chance for the Puerto Rican. Cintron’s efforts became desperate in the final stanza, but he left himself open, and Aloian landed a combination that led to an eight count.
Cintron did pretty well for himself, despite the defeat. He came into the Olympics not only without a seed, but without an AIBA world ranking either. Yet he scored wins over 31st-rankedOteng Oteng of Botswana and after that, Julian Henriques Neto of Brazil. Aloian, who had a first-round bye, beat Samir Brahimi of Algeria in his only bout prior to this.
Aloian won last year’s World Championship in the flyweight class, and he is also a former World Cup champion. He’s known to have great counterpunching ability, and he’s the type of boxer who is ready, willing and able to put his edge in experience to great advantage.
In the semifinals he will take on Tugstsogt Nyambayar of Mongolia, who scored an upset of sorts with a 15-10 win over fifth seed Jasurbek Latipov of Uzbekistan. Nyambayar won a silver medal in the 2009 World Amateur Championships, so he won’t be a cakewalk.
Both boxers are guaranteed medals at this point, but for Aloian in particualr, that won’t be enough.
