silver medal for Italian – Corriere.it

The dream of Aziz Abbes Mouhiidine crashed in the final. The blue won for the second time in his career (in 2021 he was defeated in Belgrade, in a rather questionable match, by the Cuban La Cruz Peraza) the silver medal at the Boxing World Cup. In the ring in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he lost in the category up to 92 kilos against Muslim Gadzhimagomedovgiving up for for split decisions (two out of three judges chose Russian). With no holds barred and with great tenacity, Abbes Mouhiidine faced the 2019 world champion and silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Italian federation eventually contested the verdict, by majority vote and after the judges reviewed some phases of the match to the video: Already the shift of the match from Saturday to Sunday, with an extra day of recovery for the opponent who had suffered a tough semi-final, had already appeared as a sort of crutch. It wasn’t enough. The crime had to be perpetrated to the end, the bitterness of the federal president Flavio D’Ambros.

A balanced and compelling match, but in the end the blue had to give up. In case of victory the boxer, born in Avellino from a Moroccan father, he could have brought the world heavyweight title back to Italy ten years after Clemente Russo’s feat, who won gold in October 2013. While waiting to get back into the ring for the European Games, which will award the first passes for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Abbes Mouhiidine has only one goal, Olympic gold. First we will have to dispose of the knockout against Gadzhimagomedov, despite the fact that the match was really tight and balanced until the end.

If on the one hand the Russian retaliated blow for blow, on the other the Italian managed to be precise with his right foot. A split decision (3-2) determines the first round, while in the second round Aziz is rewarded (4-1) by virtue of a decidedly higher pace than in the previous three minutes. In the last fraction the match was very tense. Gadzhimagomedov does not spare himself and both cheer at the sound of the gong. Then the decision of the judges and the gold that runs away. Once again Abbes Mouhiidine has to settle for the silver medal.