(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – Team USA’s success at the 2009 World Championships in Yerevan, Armenia continued into the third day of competition with a trio of U.S. boxers claiming wins at the event. Ray Ximenez, Jr. (Dallas, Texas) and Carlos Chavez (North Hollywood, Calif.) both recorded their second victory of the tournament, defeating Georgia’s Velodi Tkebvchava and Germany’s Marcel Orsinger respectively. Ximenez won a second round retirement over Tkebvchava and Chavez claimed a 3-2 decision over Orsinger..
Middleweight D’Mitrius Ballard (Temple Hills, Md.) earned his first win of the tournament in Monday’s competition, winning a 16-4 decision over Iran’s Benjamin Babei. Edwin Sandoval (Bakersfield, Calif.) dropped his second bout of the tournament, losing a 13-6 decision to Abdullah Kondi.
Light middleweight Gerald Sherrell, Jr. (Pittsburgh, Pa.) dropped an 11-3 decision to Russia’s Rustam Musaadzhiev in the lone American bout of Monday’s action.
Team USA Records Four Victories in the Opening Two Days of Action at the Junior World Championships
(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – The United States has enjoyed four victories in the opening two days at the 2009 Junior World Championships in Yerevan, Armenia. Three U.S. boxers competed on the first day of competition with flyweight Edwin Sandoval (Bakersfield, Calif.), bantamweight Carlos Chavez (North Hollywood, Calif.) and Ray Ximenez, Jr. (Dallas, Texas) all recording opening round victories on Saturday.
Sandoval claimed a 3-1 victory over Hungary’s Roland Kiss while Chavez won a 10-3 decision over Morocco’s Khalid Chafi. Ximenez closed the day with a 4-1 win over Belarus’ Dmitry Karvetski.
In Sunday’s action, Francisco “Chuy” Alegria (Fort Worth, Texas) dropped a 13-7 decision to Tautvydas Statkevicius of Lithuania, while lightweight Manuel Rey Rojas won a 15-3 decision over Kyrgyzstan’s Jumar Hunlov. Featherweight Ricardo Gallegos (Caldwell, Idaho) suffered a first round loss after his bout was stopped due to injury in the second round of his contest with Cuban’s Arelen Cardoso Lopez.
Three U.S. boxers will compete in Monday’s competition with Sandoval returning to the ring in a bout with Sandoval facing Turkey’s Abdullah Kondi, middleweight D’Mitrius Ballard battling Iran’s Benjamin Babaei, and Ximenez taking on Georgia’s Velodi Tkebvchava.
The U.S. team is being led by Al Simpson (Charlotte, N.C.), Gene Vivero (Dallas, Texas), and Barney Flores (McKinney, Texas) with Bobby Lee (Alamada, Calif.) serving as Team Manager. Mike Rosario (New York, N.Y.) will work as the AIBA official and Dr. Robert Nielsen (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) will serve as the Team Physician.
USA Boxing, as the national governing body for Olympic-style boxing, is the United States’ member organization of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) and a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). It is responsible for the selection and management of the United States Olympic Boxing Team, and for the governance and oversight of USA Boxing’s national organization of 38,000 members, 1,400 individual boxing clubs, and 1,600 sanctioned events annually.