Jeffries scrapes through; Billy Joe Saunders out by Ian McNeilly Aug 14th 2008

Sunderland's Tony Jeffries scraped through his light-heavyweight (81kg) round of 16 match against Colombia's Eleider Alvarez, only winning on countback after the contest finished 5-5. A win is a win as they say. It was a truly awful contest with Jeffries constantly overbalancing over the shoulder of his opponent after throwing a jab, as well as holding more often than he should have. Both boxers complained to the referee as much as they punched. Alvarez can feel hard done to as he certainly seemed to try and make the fight more than Jeffries did. The first round ended 0-0 which was a fair reflection of the quality and commitment on offer. Boxing broke out in the second session and Jeffries scored with two right crosses. He connected with several clean jabs but none registered. Alvarez got a point back before the end of the round, making it 2-1 to the Mackem at the half way point. The third was another scrappy affair but at least jabs were scoring and Jeffries kept his one point advantage as it ended 4-3. A nice right hand moved him to 5-3 but the Colombian rocked him with a right uppercut to reduce the margin to a single point. Jeffries, with more than a minute on the clock, seemed content to spoil, hold and run to try and hang on to his slender advantage. Sure enough, the Colombian drew level and the contest went to countback, wherein the highest and lowest scores of the five judges are discounted. Alvarez's confidence in waiting for the verdict seemed well placed but Jeffries, fortunately for him considering his tactics, was adjudged the winner. The tournament of 18-year-old welterweight Billy Joe Saunders was brought to an end by classy Cuban Carlos Banteaux Suarez as he lost 13-6. In a battle of counter punchers, if either managed to create a margin of a few points, the other would find it very difficult to draw level. At the end of the first, Banteaux Suarez, the 2005 world champion, was 4-1 up and in charge. Yet Saunders was not cowed and started the second round with a flurry after which he looked very unlucky not to have notched a point or two. A lovely uppercut, acknowledged by the Cuban, narrowed the gap to 4-3 and he managed to square things at 4-4 before a sweet right hand from the Cuban edged him a point ahead. It was to be the closest Saunders would come to victory. The Cuban effectively sealed the match in the third round with some speedy, well picked shots; suddenly Saunders found himself 9-4 down before nicking one back just before the close. With any nerves and ring rust truly shed (the Cuban had a bye to this match), Banteaux Suarez relaxed and enjoyed the last two minutes, even throwing in a bit of showboating before closing matters out at 13-6. Saunders, although inevitably disappointed, has nothing to be ashamed of. Firstly, he's still a baby and London 2012 is absolutely made for him. Secondly, it will be a big shock if Banteaux Suarez doesn't go on to take the gold.

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