Boxing: British captain exits

Reuters) - Mongolian light-welterweight Munkh-Erdene Uranchimeg produced a ferocious display to down British captain Thomas Stalker in the best fight of the London Games, a big casualty on a tricky Wednesday for the top seeds.

Uranchimeg claimed a 23-22 victory against the 28-year-old Stalker over an action packed nine minutes between the top two fighters in the world rankings.

The 30-year-old Mongolian, competing in his third Olympics, was energetic and clinical over the three rounds and perhaps should have won by a bigger margin, as he picked off Stalker with a number of clean rights in the third as the Briton tired.

The quarter-final victory brought a chorus of boos in the ExCel arena from the home crowd, who were quiet throughout the contest and were out cheered by a pocket of Mongolian fans.
"My soul is full of emotion. I have been n the Olympics three times now - Athens, Beijing and now London. It has been my long-standing dream to get a medal, which I have now achived," Uranchime told reporters after guaranteeing a bronze. 

The narrow defeat was too much to take a Stalker, who threw his towel over his head and stormed our of the arena. 

The British boxing captain appealed the decision to world governing body AIBA, who said they would review the bout.

"Yeah (he's inconsolable), he's not even speaking at the moment," Stalker's corner Dave Alloway told reporters.

"To be one bout away and lose by one point, to lose it by such a close decision is the bit he's finding hard to believe, It's one punch, one shot, one scoring blow," he added. 

"He's devastated because he obviously wanted to get himself a medal at his home - based Olympics but it wasn't to be."

Ukrainian light-welterweight Denys Berinchyk, sporting one of the oddest haircuts in the boxing tournament, was dancing a jig in the ring after the second seed beat Australian Jeffrey Horn to set up a clash with Uranchimeg.

"It's going to be harder to flight with the Mongolian (than Stalker), but we will see," Berinchyk said before discussing the eye-catching mostly shaved style with a lengthy piece of hair left on top.  

"The hairstyle is a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle called chub, and it was traditionally worn by Kazaki people from the south of Ukraine, who are known as good fighters."

Source from: Reuters