Athens Games gold medalist Manus Boonjumnong beats Cuba’s Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo in the light welterweight semifinal of the Beijing Games with 10-5 points, earning himself a chance to claim the second Olympic gold medal if he is able to defeat Diaz Felix of the Dominican Republic on August 23.

In the semifinal bout of Manus and Iglesias on August 22, the Cuban made an aggressive move and scored the first point with a right punch on Manus’s face. The Thai fighter remained calm and played defensively until he found his chances to successfully hit the Cuban fighter with a right hook and a right cross, both landing on Iglesias’s face. The first round ended with the Thai boxer leading the scoring by 2-1 points.

In the second round, Iglesia increased his aggression and intensity, frequently forcing Manus to step back to maintain distance. But the cunning Thai fighter used the opportunity to keep launching left hooks and right jabs back whenever he was moving away. Near the end of the round, Manus was shielding himself from Iglesia’s heavy strikes when he found a chance to hit back with a right hook on the Cuban’s torso, ending the round with 6-3 points.

In the third round, Iglesia continued with same aggressive tactic but in the mid round he slammed his head to Manus’s chin and was penalized by two points from the referee. Manus was leading the game with 9-3 points.

In the last round, Iglesia seemed determined to use his heavy right punch to end the game with a knockout, but Manus kept engaged in grappling and disrupted him with left hooks. In the mid round, Manus teased Iglesia with some quirky jumping, causing the Cuban to misstep and fell to the ground. Iglesia then became even more aggressive, while the elusive Manus continued to upset him with tricky moves.

The match ended with Manus as the winner by 10-5 points.

His final opponent will be Diaz Felix of the Dominican Republic who surprised the spectators by turning the table in the last round and defeated French Alexis Vastine with 12-10 points.     

News: Siamsport