BOXING U.S. team starts well with Dirrell's victory

ATHENS, Greece -- Middleweight Andre Dirrell got the U.S. boxing team off to a strong start Saturday, beating China's Ha Dabateer 25-18.
"Even though the bout was slow, I still gave everybody else something to look at," he said. "I believe if I stick to my game plan, I'm going to get a gold medal. Can't nobody stop me."
A well-regarded left-hander from Flint, Mich., Dirrell counterpunched his way to an easy victory in the second fight of the day at Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall as the other eight members of the U.S. team cheered him on.
The two-time national champion, and one of the top U.S. medal hopefuls, was content to let Ha chase him around the ring in the early stages. He came on strong late in the four-round bout, consistently landing counterpunches against the overeager Chinese fighter.
Despite the win, Dirrell, who has a week off before his next fight in the round of 16, will work with U.S. coach Basheer Abdullah on maintaining his weight and working on technical points.
"We had one of our strong hopefuls starting us off, and he got us going," Abdullah said. "[The fight was] definitely not his best. He was pretty much counterpunching most of the bout, but once he got his hands going, you can see he's got quick hands. He got credit for his work."
The United States is coming off its worst Olympic performance in 52 years in Sydney, where no American boxers won gold medals. U.S. boxers, who won three golds as late as 1988, have won just two in the last three Olympics.
This year's team has only nine boxers after two failed to get through qualifying bouts, and the lack of international experience will make it difficult to compete with the always tough Cubans and Russians.
But Dirrell warned against selling the team short.
"We're going to show America and every other country something," he said. "I believe we're going to come on strong."
Associated Press
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