U.S. OLYMPIC BOXING TRIALS : Williams Meets Griffin for Title

Two Southern California light-heavyweights advanced to today’s championship match in the U.S. Olympic boxing team trials, and both Oscar De La Hoya and Pepe Reilly also won Friday night and will be in weekend finals bouts.

The only semifinal loser from Southern California at the Centrum in Worcester on Friday, before 3,879, was light-welterweight Shane Mosley of Pomona. He lost a decision to world champion Vernon Forrest of Augusta, Ga.

Boxing this afternoon for the Southern California light-heavyweight title--and also a seat on the plane to Barcelona--will be Jeremy Williams of Long Beach and Montell Griffin of Midway City.

De La Hoya, the favorite at lightweight from East Los Angeles, won a decision over Lupe Suazo of Tucson, relying principally on a busier left jab, and, as he pointed out, experience.

Reilly won more easily against overmatched Tarick Salmaci of Dearborn, Mich. The Glendale boxer, stronger and quicker, started slowly but was in complete command at the finish.

Williams used the entire ring in displaying a complete package of boxing skills in overwhelming Richard Bonds of Ripley, Tenn., 20-4. Griffin, battling a head cold, was a winner over Terry McGroom of Chicago, 14-13.

De La Hoya got a 41-11 decision in beating Suazo. Some at ringside saw it a bit closer, but not the winner.

“Foreign judges tend to give you more points on the hard shots, but U.S. judges give you more points for good jabs,” De La Hoya said. “I knew that, so I kept the jab in his face. I was too experienced for him.”

Suazo is a tall, upright boxer, like De La Hoya. Suazo was rocked twice, with a right uppercut in the second round and a left hook that bloodied his nose in the third.

Reilly won as he pleased down the stretch but got off to a typically slow start against Salmaci. The Glendale boxer scored readily with his jab at the outset, but seemed to have difficulty getting inside on his taller opponent.

But when he got into a punching rhythm midway through the second, he went to his power game and made it a rout. The score was 36-21.

“I’m just a slow starter,” Reilly said. “It took me a round and a half to get my range.”

Reilly draws a much tougher foe in the final. Jesse Briseno of Kalamazoo, Mich., an 18-12 winner over Ross Thompson of Las Vegas on Friday night, gave Reilly a tough match at the national Golden Gloves championships in Chicago before Reilly won, 3-2.

Mosley, facing a taller, longer-armed opponent in Forrest, had planned to score with body punches, but Forrest never let him get close. He kept the Pomona boxer at bay with a busy jab and kept moving. Late in the fight, Mosley seemed to tire.

Forrest won, 25-14.

Forrest is world class. He won a silver medal at the Sydney World Championships last November, and he won the world amateur title in Tampa by beating Cuba’s Candelario Duvergel in the World Championships Challenge.

Mosley and Forrest were tied for first in USA Boxing’s national rankings.

Leading the charge into the finals was world champion 106-pounder Eric Griffin, who nearly broke the computers with a 94-12 tattooing of James Harris of Washington. The only upset Friday night was Army boxer Paul Ayala’s 29-26 decision over national champion bantamweight Sean Fletcher of the Navy.

Olympic Boxing Notes

The disappearance Wednesday of the computer keyboards for USA Boxing’s computerized scoring system is being treated as a theft. “We’ve filed a claim against the Worcester Marriott,” said Jim Fox, USA Boxing executive director. The equipment was placed in the hotel’s storage room, which was left unlocked, Fox said. The tournament’s first two days were scored with pencils and scorecards while new electronic equipment was flown in from Colorado Springs, Colo. . . . Light-middleweight Robert Allen, the Camp Pendleton Marine who lost to Olympic team favorite Raul Marquez on Thursday night, won’t be selected to box at the June 26-28 Olympic team boxoffs as the “most noteworthy challenger” to the trials champion. He was stopped by Marquez in the third round of their preliminaries bout, and a federation physician, Marilyn Boitano, suspended him for 30 days because of blows to the head, a common procedure in amateur boxing.

Championship

Bouts

TODAY

106 pounds--Eric Griffin (Broussard, La.) vs. Mario Bueno (Ft. Huachuca, Ariz.).

119--Paul Ayala (Ft. Worth) vs. Sergio Reyes (Camp Lejeune, N.C.).

147--Pepe Reilly (Glendale) vs. Jesse Briseno (Kalamazoo, Mich.).

165--Chris Byrd (Flint, Mich.) vs. Michael DeMoss (Camp Lejeune, N.C.).

178--Jeremy Williams (Long Beach) vs. Montell Griffin (Midway City).

201--Dannell Nicholson (Chicago) vs. James Johnson (Lawrence, Mass.).

SUNDAY

112 pounds--Tim Austin (Cincinnati) vs. Aristead Clayton (Baker, La.).

125--Ivan Robinson (Philadelphia) vs. Julian Wheeler (U.S. Navy, Little Creek, Va.).

132--Oscar De La Hoya (East Los Angeles) vs. Anthony Christodoulou (Syracuse, N.Y.).

139--Steve Johnston (Colorado Springs, Colo.) vs. Vernon Forrest (Augusta, Ga.).

156--Raul Marquez (Houston) vs. Antwun Echols (Davenport, Iowa).

201+--Larry Donald (Cincinnati) vs. Tyrone Campbell (Houston).