Boxing : Victories by McKinney, Johnson Lift U.S. Spirits

Kennedy McKinney, a 22-year-old used car salesman from Killeen, Tex., stretched the American boxing team’s winning streak to 4 at the Olympic Games Thursday morning, stopping a Guatemalan bantamweight in the first round.

McKinney’s fired-up U.S. teammates, seated in the athletes’ section at ringside had their flags in hand and were ready to start some “USA!” chants, but McKinney did not give them enough time.

He knocked down Erick-Giovanni Perez twice, and the referee stopped the fight 1 minute, 44 seconds into the first round.

Perez wasn’t much of a test, and that suited McKinney just fine.

“Obviously, he didn’t have many boxing skills,” McKinney said. “Did I want a tougher test? No, that was all I needed. I don’t need tests, I’ve already made the Olympic team. It’s good to have a quick one like that. I don’t want to be all sore by the end of the tournament.”

McKinney’s victory followed Arthur Johnson’s 2-round win over Nepal’s Bishnubahadur Singh in Wednesday night’s session. It was Johnson’s second victory here, and he became the first U.S. boxer to advance to the quarterfinals.

McKinney came here as the United States’ least-experienced international boxer. He was 0 for 2 in international bouts until Thursday. But that’s not how McKinney saw it.

“I was really 1 and 1,” he said. “I got robbed against that Cuban (Manuel Martinez) in Atlantic City (last April).”

Afterward, he made his victory sound like textbook boxing.

“On the first knockdown, I set him up with the jab, and I caught him with a simple, old-fashioned 1-2 that caught him right on the money,” he said.

“At that point, I didn’t want to rush it. I didn’t want to get caught with anything, like Kelcie did (featherweight Kelcie Banks, who was knocked out with a single punch Sunday). I didn’t know how badly he was hurt.

“He could’ve been tough, even then, but I didn’t give him a chance to be tough.”

Ken Adams, the U.S. coach, was asked if the recentvictories have brought about a re-grouping of the Americans, following Banks’ knockout, subsequent hospitalization, and the mixup in which middleweight Anthony Hembrick arrived too late for his first-round bout and lost in a walkover.

“I don’t know if we ever fell apart,” Adams said.

“Banks just walked into a punch that . . . well, Mike Tyson would’ve been knocked out if he’d have walked into a punch like that one. And Hembrick, well, that’s behind us. A terrible thing, but it’s behind us.

“I wouldn’t call Kennedy’s win today any kind of a psych job on anyone. To me, it just says: ‘Hey, here we come.’ ”

Adams said that Thursday’s strategy session with McKinney had been on the money.

“We know Kennedy has a good, quick right hand, so we told him to set this guy up with the jab, look him over, and if the right hand is there, take him out. And that’s just what he did.”

McKinney improved the U.S. record here to 5-2, with 2 more Americans boxing Friday in their Olympic debuts. Lightweight Romallis Ellis has drawn a tough opponent, South Korea’s Lee Kang Su. Light-welterweight Todd Foster figures to beat Zaire’s Kampompo Miango.

Johnson was booed during the introductions of his Wednesday night bout, but in businesslike fashion he quickly removed the crowd as a factor in the bout, with an assist from light-heavyweight Andrew Maynard.

Boxing at first from long range, Johnson popped his quick jab off Singh’s face, snapping his head back. Gaining confidence, Johnson then began scoring with following rights.

And when long, sweeping left hooks began landing, a rout was under way.

At that point, Maynard, in the sixth row of the bleachers, stood up, unfurled a U.S. flag and began waving it. In short order, the first “USA! USA!” chants of the tournament rolled down from the stands.

Johnson sent Singh sprawling to the floor in a neutral corner with a right, and the Hungarian referee, Pajar Sandor, gave Singh a standing-8 count. Then Johnson swarmed all over his opponent.

Johnson landed a left hook to the jaw, and Pajar sent Singh to his corner, waving off Johnson just before the end of the second round.

As Johnson left the arena floor, his heavyweight teammate, Ray Mercer, shouted: “All right! We ain’t losin’ nothin’, now!”

The best bout of the tournament so far may have been the 149th, Wednesday night, when East and West Germans squared off in an epic battle of muscular light-heavyweights.

It was fought late in Wednesday night’s session, after most of the spectators had left. East Germany’s Rene Suetovious dominated West Germany’s Markus Bott early, nearly closing the show in the second round when Bott was reeling.

But Bott fought back, battered the suddenly tired Suetovious furiously, and the referee applied 2 standing-8 counts to Suetovious.

A third standing-8in the round automatically terminated the bout and the West German was accorded a rousing ovation.

Chinese journalists began arriving midway through Wednesday night’s session for a historic event.

For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, an athlete from the People’s Republic of China, Wang Weiping, was about to box. China competed in the Los Angeles Olympics, but did not enter a boxing team.

Wang, though, drew Andreas Tews, East Germany’s 1987 European champion at 112 pounds, and the result was predictable, a 5-0 loss for Wang.