Gould Wins 5-0 Decision on His Birthday, Halts U.S. Slump in Amateur Boxing

Kenneth Gould celebrated his 19th birthday Sunday by snapping a string of four straight American losses at the World Amateur Boxing Championships.

Shin Joon-Sup of South Korea, the only 1984 Olympic champion in the tournament, landed several hard shots to the body, but lost a 3-2 decision to lanky Henry Maske of East Germany, the European champion, in the 165-pound class.

No Cubans fought on the 12-bout afternoon card at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. Cuba has an 11-0 record in the competition.

But two more members of the strong Bulgarian team won, giving them a 10-1 mark.

Gould, the seventh American to box, battered Kunihiro Muira of Japan with volleys to the head and hard right jabs to gain a 5-0 decision in a second-round 147-pound class bout.

The four previous American losses all were on 3-2 decisions. The U.S. team’s record is 3-5, with 139-pounder Nick Kakouris gaining one of the victories and suffering one of the losses.

Darin Allen, 165, of Columbus, Ohio, and Alex Garcia, super heavyweight of San Fernando, were scheduled to box on Sunday night’s 16-bout card. The final three U.S. boxers will see their first action Monday.

“I blocked out the birthday, I decided to wait until (Sunday’s match) was over and celebrate then,” Gould, a two-time U.S. Amateur champion from Rockford, Ill., said.

“It was my first match, and I had to get through all those cobwebs,” added Gould, who was in complete control of the bout.

“When I come back to the corner, I know my coach will be there to chew me out if I don’t do well.”

One of Gould’s cornermen was his personal coach, his father, Nathaniel Gould.

The two Bulgarian winners were Emil Tchuprenski, the European 132-pound champion, and 165-pounder Filko Rustchukliev.

Tchuprenski did not look particularly sharp, but he scored enough to win a 3-2 decision over counter-punching Jun Jin-Chul of South Korea.

Rustchukliev got up from a first-round knockdown to score a 4-1 decision over Jeffrey Harding of Australia, at 165 pounds.

Torsten Koch of East Germany, the European runner-up at 132 but World Cup champion and No. 1-ranked in the world, used his height and reach advantages to score an easy 5-0 victory over Chris Kosedowski of Poland.

Canadian boxers split two bouts, and Neil Foran, the first English boxer to see action, lost.

Foran was outpointed, 5-0, by Stefan Sjostrand of Sweden, at 132 pounds.

The Canadian winner was 147-pounder John Shaw, who boxed his way to a 4-1 victory over Liasu Braimoh of Nigeria.

The losing Canadian was Asif Dar, who was stopped at 1:27 of the first round by Engels Pedrosz of Venezuela, at 132 pounds.