PARIS (Reuters) – Super heavyweight Teremoana Junior was pipped to World Championship gold by Bakhodir Jalolov in Tashkent last year, but he is eager to flip the script and eliminate the Uzbek when the two meet at the Paris Olympics on Friday.
Defending Olympic and Asian Games champion Jalolov will face the Australian in a mouth-watering quarter-final bout, after the two won their opening matches in contrasting fashion on Monday.
Teremoana was thoroughly dominant in his knockout win over Dmytro Lovchynskyi, raining down fierce blows to leave the Ukrainian sprawling on the canvas with 11 seconds left in the first round.
In the very next match, Jalolov put on a more measured display against Norwegian Omar Shiha as he controlled the bout and landed clinical punches to ease to a 5-0 win.
“I wasn’t planning to go for the knockout. I am confident in my strength,” said Teremoana, who delighted the crowd with a dance in the middle of the ring after his win.
“The plan was to go out there and box, and well, I was landing a few clean punches and he was feeling it. I fought him last year and he beat me over three rounds.
“So I was just very happy to get my revenge and I hope that Uzbek (Jalolov) wins so I can get my revenge on him too. I believe I’m the best in the world and I think this is the stage to prove it.”
Asked about Teremoana’s designs on revenge, Jalolov said: “God willing, I will win the first place. I will win the gold medal. I am very happy (with my win).
“(Teremoana) has prepared well. I am ready to fight him. I am always ready.”
The fights were given an extra air of significance by the presence of WBC, WBO and WBA champion Oleksandr Usyk, who was in attendance at the North Paris Arena.
“Yes, he came behind the scenes in the dressing room to wish Ukraine good luck, so I just had a bit of eye contact with him,” Teremoana said.
“I wasn’t really thinking of him though, I was just very happy to get the win for Australia.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Paris; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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