Mexico had that moment when it stops its daily routine for a key moment. The moment lasted just over nine minutes in front of the television, the computer or the cell phone. It was the fight of its champion, of its Olympic medalist, of one of its favorite sports. Marco Verde won a transcendental silver medal in the sporting history of Mexico. In the 71 kilogram final, the Uzbek Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev beat him by three rounds, a final that put the country back on the big stage of Olympic boxing.
It was a fight of high emotional levels. Green, as the Mexican is nicknamed, returned to the ring at the Roland Garros stadium, pampered by a crowd that had Mexican overtones. Verde followed the teachings of Radamés Hernández to not lose his head in the first round, although the judges gave Muydinkhujaev better scores. It was not a good omen. In the second round, the Asian hit so hard, dodged so quickly, that he left Verde in the dust. In the last round, the Mexican came out with all the courage he had saved up over the last three years to respond to the Asian. Each punch sought to come back in an almost impossible way, being disadvantaged in the first rounds. The jury gave him the victory in this roundalthough insufficient for gold.
Marco Verde had a dream tournament. In the round of 16, where the Mexican started to compete, he knocked out Tiago Muxanga from Mozambique. In the quarter-finals, the bar that defined whether he was assured of a medal or not, he beat the Indian Dev Nishant. Despite already having damage from his fights, in the semi-final he beat British boxer Lewis Richardson in a great last round. In the final he had another prodigal son from Uzbekistan, a country also obsessed with boxing. Before Paris, he had five gold medals in boxing. In the French capital, Hasanboy Dusmatov won gold in the 51-kilo category. The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the multi-champion Saúl Cinnamon Álvarez predicted the best of success for him before the final.
The story of Marco Verde brings to life the exploits of boxing in Mexico. It is not for nothing that it is the sport that has given the country the second most Olympic medals with 13, including the two golds won by Ricardo Delgado and Antonio Roldán in Mexico 1968. The first medal won by a boxer was at the Games organized in 1932 in Los Angeles thanks to the silver of Francisco Cabañas. The second was a bronze won in Nazi Germany, in 1936, thanks to Fidel Ortiz. In Tokyo 1964 Juan Fabila Mendoza obtained another third place. In Mexico 68, in addition to the golds of Delgado and Roldán, Joaquín Rocha and Agustín Zaragoza won the bronze. The list continues with the silver of Alfonso Zamora (Munich 1972), the bronze of Juan Paredes Miranda (Montreal 1976), the silver of Héctor López Colín (Los Ángeles 1984), the third place of Christian Bejarano (Sydney 2000) and we had to wait until Rio 2016 for Misael Rodríguez to celebrate another bronze.
Mexico is enjoying Paris 2024 with its five medals. First was the bronze thanks to the archery trident that dazzled with its arrows straight to the 10 by Alejandra Valencia, Ana Paula Vázquez and Ángela Ruiz, who came of age the day she won the medal. The second medal was the surprise of Prisca Awiti in judo with an unprecedented silver. The third was thanks to the duo of Osmar Olvera and Juan Manuel Celaya, who came close to gold and hung a valuable silver in the springboard. The fourth was achieved by Olvera himself, now as a soloist, from three meters after making a place for himself among the Chinese power with a bronze. With Marco Green’s medal, Mexico surpasses what it did in Tokyo 2020 and, for the moment, equals what it did in Rio 2016.
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