Australia’s history-making super heavyweight slugger Teremoana Teremoana might have been deprived of his fill of lamb chops in the Olympic Village but it it didn’t stop him making mincemeat of his first opponent in Paris.
The Sydneysider knocked Ukrainian Dmytro Lovchynskyi to the ground three times in the opening round of of their +92kg preliminary round clash and celebrated with a victory jig that had the crowd roaring its approval.
He’s a big man with a big personality, which came to the fore in a video shot this week when he talked about the food at the Olympic village. He bemoaned the fact that there was a two lamb chop limit in the dining hall -“that’s not on my quota” he joked.
Ukraine’s heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk was in the venue to support Lovchynskyi and Teremoana met him after the fight.
He made history as the first Australaian to win a fight at the +92kg level – Dan Beahan (Beijing, 2008) and Johan Linde (London, 2012) both failed to progress past the first round.
The 26-year-old lifted Australia’s spirits after Harry Garside’s first round exit. Garside had hopped to go better than his bronze in Tokyo but was left devasated.
“I believe I am the best in the world and this is the stage to do it,” Teremoana said after hammering Lovchynskyi.
“After what happened to Harry, I wanted to boost the morale of the whole Australian team and get us back on the winning streak.
“I wasn’t planning to go for the knockout, but I am confident in my strength. The plan was to go out there and box and I was landing a few clean punches and he was feeling it. He went down every time he got caught.
“I fought him (Lovchynskyi) in February last year and he beat me over three rounds.
“I was very happy to get revenge and I hope the Uzbek wins so I can get revenge on him, too.”
Teremoana was referencing Bakhodir Jalolov, the defending gold medallist from Tokyo who owns a 14-0 pro record and is favoured to repeat his gold medal win here.
He will be a formidable challenge for Teremoana in the round of 16.
“100 per cent I can beat him,” Teremoana said. “Someone is going to get knocked out. My plan is to box him and if a punch lands, we are both heavyweights, I know someone is going to feel it.
Teremoana is having another crack at the fight game having quit at 19. He returned in honour of his late grandfather.
“My grandfather passed away and at my 21st birthday, I decided I was going to come back and put his name on the world stage,” Teremoana said. “That was the first statement. I have three more to go.”
Garside was disconsolate after losing his opening bout.
“I’m sure the next month or two will be quite challenging, quite hard,” he said.
“I fear for my mind gets the better of me, I feel like I’ve let myself down, and let a few people down but what do you do?
“Australia’s such a sporting nation and I’m so sorry. I feel like a failure right now, I don’t know what to say.
“Thank you so much Australia, it really means a lot.
“I know sportsmen are meant to say the right thing right now, thank you so much. But deep down inside I fear for what the next few months look like, I’m sure there’ll be some dark times and I’ve got to prepare for that right now.”
Garside later added to reporters: “Before the last Olympics, I hated myself, and it got results… But over the last four years I’ve become my own friend, which sounds so good, but I’ve started being too nice to myself… I’ve got to reflect on that and see what’s next.
“Life is full of ups and downs. The universe doesn’t stop for anyone. The next few months for myself will be a pretty hard time. I will have some dark moments and I’m f—king terrified to be honest.“
Tony Harperhttps://https://ift.tt/VjsnZhB chop loving, jig dancing giant makes history, as distraught Garside left ‘f–king terrified’ by shock ‘failure’
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