Olympic Boxing: Mary Kom marches into the quarter finals

MC Mary Kom lived up to the expectations and progressed to the Quarter finals of the London Olympics beating Karolina Michalczuk of Poland. Mary Kom, making her Olympic debut, dominated the bout and took the game by 19-14 points.

Mary Kom was quick with her footwork and displayed fast hands much to the dismay of the Polish boxer. The five-time world champion took the second and third rounds after the opening round was leveled and held her own against Michalczuk, a 32-year-old who won a bronze medal at the World Championships this year, to make it 19-14 overall.

Michalczuk started the fight aggressively and dominated the first 10 seconds of the first round. Mary Kom looked unsettled with Karolina pushing her to the ropes. However, Mary made a steady recovery and fought back. She looked for straight punches and tried to break down the strong defence of the Polish boxer. Karolina tried to keep a high guard and the boxers shared the round 3-3.

The second round saw Mary Kom open up and attack the Polish. The Polish stuck to her strategy of pushing Mary to the ropes but the India stood in the middle of the ring and threw punches at her opponent. Karolina’s strategy fell apart as Mary Kom switched to a more attacking mode and took the round 5-4.

Mary Kom dominated the third round and threw Karolina completely off guard. She got inside the Polish’s body and delivered body punches. That lowered Karolina’s guard and Mary Kom used her right hand to take advantage. She kept going for the straight punches and that swung the round completely to the Indian’s favor. Mary took the round by 7-3 and raced to an overall lead of 5 points.

The fourth round was more about maintaining the lead. Once the Polish went into desperation mode, Mary Kom kept her calm and her lead. She defended solidly and threw in enough punches to keep her lead going. Though Karolina changed her strategy, Mary Kom was technically far superior to fall for it. She held on and go inside the Polish’s body often delivering straight punches with her right. The intense round finished with both boxers tied at 4-4.

Mary Kom took the game by 19-14 and progresses to the quarter finals of the Women’s fly weight (51kg)  category. Though a few were skeptic about Mary Kom switching her category just before the Olympics, the Super Mom showed that she knew what she was doing.

Mary Kom will take on Tunisia’s Maroua Rahali, who has got a first-round bye, in the quarter finals.