Boxing 1st World Qualification Tournament 2024: Alyssa Mendoza gets big first-round stoppage win for the U.S.
The youngest boxer on Team USA earned a key win in the round of 16.
Boxing
Alyssa Mendoza from the U.S. continued her winning ways, beating Morocco’s Nisrine Amine with a referee stoppage in the first round of their 57 kg weight class. With the win, Mendoza got closer to obtaining a quota for the U.S. in boxing at the Busto Arsizio 1st World Qualifier on Friday (8 March.)
“The first 15 seconds, I was trying to figure her out, see what she throws, how she opens herself. And then after I figured it out, then I just put the pressure on, feinting, timing her, and was just letting my shots fly,” Mendoza said to Olympics.com after the win.
She is the youngest member of the U.S. team fighting in Italy. Mendoza said a long training camp with her team helped prepare her for this moment.
"I'm feeling really happy and I worked really hard for this. We had an eight-week camp, and it feels good that the hard work I put in those eight weeks paid off. I feel good, I feel conditioned, I could have gone all three rounds like that,” she said.
Mendoza grew up in Caldwell, Idaho, and spends downtime from boxing camping and getting into nature. She said being from there, and learning a work ethic from her father in Caldwell, shaped her.
“It was definitely my dad and what he raised me to be. My work ethic and my resilience, my determination. Growing up and having a father figure like that made me who I am today,” she said.
Mendoza’s next bout will be the quarterfinals of the tournament on Sunday. If she wins, she will get a final bout on Monday, 11 March.
- As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Luiz Oliveira keeping up the family tradition
Elsewhere in Busto Arsizio, in the men’s 57-kg weight class, Brazil’s Luiz Oliveira won by a referee’s stoppage in the third round over Vladislav Voroshilov from Israel. Oliveira is the grandson of Servilio de Oliveira, a bronze medalist in boxing from the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. Great Britain’s Owain Harris-Allan won 5-0 over New Zealand’s Alex Mukuka.
Three-time Canadian national champion Mckenzie Wright lost to the Philippines' Aira Villegas, 3-2, in the 50-kg weight class. Sofie Vinter Rosshaug from Denmark earned a 5-0 win over Sadia Bromand from Afghanistan.
In the women’s 57 kg, the Philippines' Nesthy Petecio won by points, 5-0, over Germany’s Nancy Canan Tas. Petecio won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Sitora Turdibekova from Uzbekistan earned a 4-1 win over Lucie Horvath Sedlackova from Czechia.
Boxing action will continue on Saturday (9 March) through Monday (11 March.)