COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-
Two-time national champion Mike Wilson stopped Theron Pappas at 1:59 of the first round Saturday during the preliminaries of the U.S. boxing championships.
Wilson, fighting at 201 pounds from Central Point, Ore., showed little sign of rust against his outclassed opponent. He took control from the start, scored repeatedly with a body attack and had a 20-0 lead in punches scored before the bout was stopped.
“I wanted to get at least another round of work in, to open up my lungs a little bit, but I’ll take it as it comes,” Wilson said. “It felt good to get in there and get a little rust out and get into the tournament right away.”
Danny Garcia, of Philadelphia, who won the 132-pound title last year, was among the other winners in the seven-bout tournament-opening card. Garcia, moving up in weight, defeated James Berry of Baltimore, 23-9.
“I was feeling him out during the first round,” the 19-year-old Garcia said. “By the second round I had him figured out and I began opening up. I knew I was up by quite a bit (22-6) after three rounds, so I went back on defense in the fourth.”
In a change of format, the national championships are the sole direct qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Trials. The top eight top finishers in each of the 11 weight classes qualify for trials, to be contested in August, with dates and the location still to be determined.
“It’s good,” Garcia said of the new format. “You win twice here, you’re in the quarterfinals and you go to the trials.”
Wilson, 24, who works as a furniture mover in Oregon and is on the U.S. Pan American Games team, wasn’t so sure.
“To be honest with you, I kind of liked the old format (with multiple opportunities to qualify for the trials) better,” he said. “Here, you could have a couple of the top guys in a weight class fighting one another early in the tournament. The winner would knock the other guy out of the trials, and that’s kind of unfortunate.”
In other preliminary action, Javier Molina of Commerce, Calif., won over Alan Knight of Orlando, Fla., at 141 pounds. Molina was leading, 21-1 before the contest was stopped in the second round.
Hector Ramos of San Antonio, Texas, defeated Matthew Flores of Twin Falls, Idaho, 18-10 at 141 pounds, and Ronnie Reams of Colorado Springs stopped Thomas Buswell of Paho, Hawaii, at 1:58 of the third round in their 141-pound match.
Miguel Beltran of West Jordan, Utah, stopped Joseph Harrington of Camp Lejeune, N.C. in one 152-pound contest, and Marcus Willis of Fort Myers, Fla., defeated Jesse Lubash of Munhall, Pa., in the other 151-pound bout.
Preliminary competitions will resume Sunday and Monday. Quarterfinals will be Tuesday, semifinals on Wednesday and championships on Friday.
