بـــــــــــــــــــوکس ایــــــــــران

The USA dominated the American Boxing Confederation's Women's Continental event in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela last week. The US women's squad took home eight gold medals from a possible ten and thus also topped the team rankings list. We take a quick look at the main event highlights.

USA's London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Marlen Esparza opened the account for the stars and stripes. Even though she is just 24 years old, Espaza has been a member of the national squad since 2006 and now actually counts as one of the team's more experienced members. The Flyweight (51kg) advanced to the finals where she went toe to toe with Brazil's Pan-American Champion Clelia Marquez Costa. Esparza looked comfortable however and won every round to take the first US gold medal of the event.

London 2012 Olympian and AIBA Women's World Championships bronze medallist Queen Underwood (USA) has struggled in the Continentals in recent years but rediscovered her groove in Venezuela. Following a tactical opening round in the finals Underwood went up the gears against Argentina's 21-year-old Dayana Sanchez and dominated through the second to take the gold medal at Lightweight (60kg).

In the absence of US Olympic Champion Claressa Shields, AIBA Women's World Championships silver medallist Franchon Crews represented the USA in Puerto La Cruz but was defeated in the finals by the Dominican Republic's rising star Yenebier Guillen by 15:7. The Dominican Middleweight (75kg) controlled their bout from the opening bell and secured her first ever continental title. The surprise result however was perhaps that Canada's three-time AIBA World Champion Mary Spencer had to settle for a bronze.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's defending National Champion Tayonis Cedeno turned out to be the surprise package of the whole tournament. Though lacking in experience at international level she managed to pull out a big win against Canada's Kim Klavel on home soil. This gave the host nation their only gold medal of the tournament.

US domination continued through AIBA Women's World Championships bronze medallist Cristina Cruz, who faced a strong rival at Bantamweight (54kg) in Argentina's Leonela Sanchez. On an equal pegging after four minutes, Cruz was better in the last two rounds and won the gold medal after beating her South American opponent by 13:11.

Seattle-based Jennifer Hamann only switched from soccer to boxing in 2009 but she is already the US National Champion at Featherweight (57kg). Adding a continental title to her trophy cabinet, she edged out the final against Argentina's Karen Carvajal by 18:15.

National Champion Bertha Aracil secured the USA's next gold medal against Canada's Sara Kali in the Light Welterweight (64kg) class. After two minutes she was only 1:0 up but she changed her rhythm to dominate the remainder of the bout. Danyelle Wolf, a bright hope for the future of US Boxing, also won the gold medal in Puerto La Cruz against Brazil's Jessica Carlini Silva from Espirito Santo in their Welterweight (69kg) final.

Finally, AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Tiffanie Hearn did not offer much in the way of opportunities to her opponent, Canada's Maude Bergeron, in the final of the Light Heavyweight (81kg) class. The last gold medal of the whole continental event was achieved by multiple times US National Champion Denise Rico who showed no mercy against Venezuela's Diosmary Matutes. Rico was in a class of her own and the Venezuelan was lucky to survive their unequal battle.