Tulare boxer Richard Torrez Jr. gets latest Tokyo Olympics win. Here’s how close he is to gold
.JPG "Richard Torrez Jr., from the United States, left, and Cuba’s Dainier Pero after their men’s super heavyweight (over 91 kg) boxing match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.")
Tulare’s Richard Torrez Jr. picked up another win at the Tokyo Olympics to clinch Team USA’s third medal in the sport with a 4-1 win over Cuba’s Dainier Pero at the Kokugikan Arena.
It will be the first super heavyweight medal for Team USA since Riddick Bowe brought one home in 1998. Bowe won silver at the Seoul Olympics.
But Torrez has no plans to settle for silver, much less the bronze he’s guaranteed.
“I’ve been a medalist before and medals are great,” Torrez said. “But I’m not here to be a medalist, I’m here to be a gold medalist. That’s my goal. That’s my ambition. That’s my goal. I can’t wait to get off the phone with my dad, tell him what we did.”
Torrez will face Kazakhstan’s Kamshybek Unkabayev in a semifinal at 3:18 p.m. Wednesday in Tokyo (11:18 p.m. PDT Tuesday).
The two semifinal losers each will get a bronze medal since the Olympic boxing tournament does not hold a third-place bout.
In his latest victory, which came Sunday night in Tokyo, Torrez landed punches in the third round and kept the pressure on as Pero showed fatigue. Torrez won the round on all five judges’ cards.
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“I firmly believe I am the most conditioned super heavyweight there is. I firmly believe that,” Torrez said. “I’m not one to toot my own horn much, I’m not one to say I’m the best ever, but I can tell you I’m the best conditioned.
“I can tell you I go in there with 100% of my heart and give my all every time. That’s a fact. I will not say I ever left anything in that ring.”
Torrez admitted it was a “a great relief” to hear his name called as the winner because he wasn’t sure how the judges would score the fight.
But finally, he got the official word.
“At that point you can’t help but feel nervous,” he said. “You gave your all in that ring, and I gave my all. Of course there’s going to be jitters and anything like that. At the end of the day I know I gave the best I could give.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2021 at 11:32 AM.
