Opponents Hardly Warrant Olympian Effort

How good is the Olympic boxing class of 2000?

It was hard to tell Friday night at the Texas Station casino where Rocky Juarez, Jeff Lacy, and Francisco Bojado were on display.

But not for long. All three disposed of questionable opposition in less than a round, each improving to 2-0 as professionals.

Juarez, the silver medalist in the featherweight division in the 2000 Games, finished off Mike Jones (0-2) in 44 seconds. Jones, who obviously didn’t want to fight, went down once on his own and once after a grazing blow by Juarez, choosing not to get up the second time.

Tom Attardo (8-6-1, one knockout) couldn’t get up after he went down for the second time, his head bouncing on the canvas after a vicious left hand from Lacy, a middleweight in the Olympics now fighting as a super middleweight. The fight was stopped at the 1:41 mark, but it was several minutes before Attardo was able to get up and stand under his own power.

Bojado, a super featherweight on the Mexican Olympic team, knocked down Alejandro Rivera (3-5-1, 2) twice. Rivera quit after the second knockdown, the fight ending at 2:08.

In the main event, Alex Bunema (19-2-1, 11) won a split decision over Tony Marshall (34-9-6, 12) in a 10-round junior middleweight fight in which there were no knockdowns.