COLORADO SPRINGS — Louie Byrd was more than a bit enraged, plenty stunned and even a little embarrassed. He no doubt resembled the better fighter in what should have been a cakewalk, yet when the final bell sounded, he was the loser, sulking over the end of his streak of dominance.
The Denver resident suffered a shocking loss Saturday in the 108-pound light-flyweight finals of the USA Boxing national championships at the City Auditorium, unsuccessful in his attempt for his fourth consecutive title following a 28-27 setback against David Carlton.
A crowd of 1,669 watched the patriotic conclusion to a six-day tournament that was held in Colorado Springs for the 21st time in 23 years, with a record 338 participants.
Other winners included Fort Carson sergeant John Franklin at flyweight (114 pounds).
All boxers in the finals, as well as the fighters in Friday’s consolation bouts, will advance to the U.S. Olympic Trials — the men beginning July 31 in Mobile, Ala., and the women in January or February at a to-be-determined site. Quota spots for the 2012 London Games can be initially qualified via the world championships — the men starting in September in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the women starting in May in Chongqing, China.
Going for his first Olympics, Byrd, 20, trailed Carlton, of Cincinnati, by four points after the first round, and the score was tied after the second, even though Byrd was in control, blitzing Carlton with punch after punch and a slew of combinations and body shots along the ropes. In the third, he maintained his aggressiveness, as Carlton took an eight count.
“I guess you just never know, right?” said Byrd, who has nine national titles — four at the National Golden Gloves, three at the U.S. nationals and two at the Junior Olympics.
“It seems as if they weren’t counting a lot of the body punches that I was throwing,” Byrd said. “I’m not going to sit here and say that he wasn’t hitting me. He was clearly hitting me, but I landed more shots. And I threw more. . . . In the third is where he progressed, whereas I feel that I progressed more. I don’t see how he got the points.”
Byrd remains on track for London, asserting that “a loss is a loss if you don’t learn from it. Obviously, I’m going to learn from it.”
However, he maintained “it seems like a little bit of politics are in play right here with USA Boxing. I don’t know. Maybe it’s time for me just to look forward to (turning) pro if I’m not making the Olympics . . . and quit wasting my time.”
