DREAMS COME, DREAMS GO BUT THE LADIES WILL FIGHT ON
By: Peter Mann, Head UK & Eire Editor
Dreams come and go but it is how you go about picking yourself up and carry on amidst often unknown adversity makes an individual either who they are or who they strive to achieve. However, it wasn’t meant to happen like this though, was it?
For all that the Irish legend of Katie Taylor and Team GB’s Nicola Adams progressed; two would fall by the wayside. One of that losing duo was to be the forlorn figure of 21 year old Savannah Marshall. The World Champion, the World Ranked number one, qualification for the Games assured on a glorious 21st birthday.
Amidst all the hype surrounding Marshall’s Olympic debut, she was to be defeated 16-12 from a rather scrappy and pugnacious encounter with Kazakhstan’s Marina Volnova. For all the guile, style, grit and determination which Marshall brought into the bout, something seemed to be lacking, missing in fact, from her final performance. It was this which proved to be costly, although the officiating did, at times, leave a lot to be desired. The Silent Assassin though was kept at bay, and at arm’s reach, as Volnova pulled out all the stops to stifle Marshall. She (Volnova) succeeded when, after the first two rounds finished level at 4-4- and 3-3, the Kazakh began to edge in front, taking the last two rounds by two points apiece; 3-1 and then 6-4.
Afterwards an understandably despondent Marshall was quoted as saying that “I am really disappointed to go out of the Olympics at the first hurdle and to have lost the fight.
“All the preparation was right when I was preparing for the fight but when it came to it I just didn’t box to my full potential.”
A nation most certainly felt her pain.
Nicola Adams though would have no problem in disposing her opponent when she would take all four rounds in a 16-7 success over the Bulgarian, Stoyka Petrova, guaranteeing herself a minimum of a bronze medal.
Adams more than improved as the rounds progressed, transferring into a switch-hitter mode that bamboozled her opponent. Succeeding over the four, Adams progressed with 2-1, 3-2, 6-2, 5-2 scores.
The remaining Team GB ladies fighter would see that of Natasha ‘Tasha’ Jonas face-off against the American Quanitta ‘Queen’ Underwood in her opening bout, and she put in what was, at the time, the performance of her life. More so as the American, Underwood would take the first round by a point, winning with a 4-3 score. For all the reputation Underwood arrived with, Jonas amply destroyed it as, from the second round onwards, the gap gradually increased in Jonas’ favour.
Increasing by a point per round, Jonas would take the reaming rounds 4-2, 6-3, 8-4 and sealed an emphatic 21-13 victory. The reward for Jonas, in defeating Underwood, produced what turned out to be the bout of the tournament.
The afternoon of Monday 6th August would see Tasha Jonas re-emerge for her second Olympic bout inside 24 hours, this time it was to be against the four time Irish National champion, Katie Taylor.
And what a bout it was to be as well.
Both ladies would enter the ring to not only the tune of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ but the packed out Excel Arena crowd erupting as one in support of both fighters from Team GB and Team Ireland.
Throughout the ensuing four rounds the crowd was, to a point, unified as one, in support of both ladies, but with Taylor’s support being the ‘slightly’ more vociferous, it was to be some ten minute spell in the arena.
Both fighters went at it hammers and tongs from the beginning even though the opening round was somewhat a cagey affair, Taylor somehow sneaked home by three points. The start of the second round would see Jonas unbalance Taylor and take the fight to her opponent as she tried, boy she tried, to cut the gap, but to no avail. That gap wasn’t furthered though in that second as it would finish level at five apiece.
For all that she gave throughout the bout though; Jonas ultimately did not have the measure of Taylor over the final two rounds of the bout, the Irish lady racking up some sixteen points in just four minutes and put the bout well out of reach, the third round ending 9-4 in Taylor’s favour. And, although Jonas was resilient throughout and provided the heart of a lion in her performance, Taylor would also give a fantastic display on what was her Olympic debut and eventually took what was a great bout with a 26-15 score.
It was to be a bout in which neither Jonas nor Taylor deserved to lose, but one had to and is was to be Taylor that is now guaranteed a bronze medal, progressing to the semi-final. The draw for the semis has pitted that of Nicola Adams (Team GB) and Katie Taylor (Team Ireland) against that of Mery Kom (India) and Mavzuna Chorieva (Tajikistan) respectively.
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