BEIJING • The U.S. boxing team received a huge blow Tuesday when team leader and overwhelming gold medal favorite Rau’shee Warren lost his opening-round bout.

Warren, who trained at the Olympic Training Center, is the world champion in the flyweight division. He was the only boxer on Team USA with Olympic experience.

Minutes after losing 9-8 to 2005 world champion, South Korea’s Oksung Lee, Warren buried his head into the shoulder of a USA Boxing public relations person and cried.

“I worked so hard for this,” Warren said. “To come here and lose in the first round like this, it ain’t right man. It don’t seem real to me.

“Every day, every week, every month, even years that I’ve been working so hard for this and I came this far to lose in the first round again – I’m not saying I failed myself, but it should be the right scoring. The scoring should be fair to everybody.”

Warren’s reality set in, in what had to be an emotionally painful way. As soon as the bout was over, Warren confidently walked to his corner, presumably a winner.

USA Boxing coach Dan Campbell didn’t share Warren’s confident look and asked Warren why he stopped throwing punches the last minute. Warren thought he heard teammates in the stands telling him to move.

Typically, near the end of a fight, a boxer who believes he is down in points will chase after his opponent hoping to get in a few shots for a quick point or two or possibly a knockout. A boxer who believes he’s ahead will continue moving to stay clear and just let the clock run to zero.

Warren did that much of the last 45 seconds of the fight. He moved, avoiding exchanges with Lee.

Then came the walk to the corner and Campbell’s question and Warren’s reaction.

“He said, ‘You mean I lost?'” Campbell said. “And I said, ‘yeah.'”

Warren, frustrated, threw his mouthpiece into the corner padding. He threw his headgear and gloves, too.

“I didn’t really know (the score) because it was so much going on in the crowd, everybody was yelling and screaming,” Warren said. “I was looking at some of my teammates and it sounded like they were saying, ‘move’ and some were just saying, ‘fight’. I thought I was up. I thought I was up because I was scoring. Evidently I was down.”

Warren wasn’t the only one questioning the judges’ scoring. Campbell did, too. And fans throughout the gymnasium voiced their displeasure a couple of times.

Early in the third round, with the score tied, 6-6, Warren landed a hard overhand to Lee’s face. The hit snapped back Lee’s head. Then the scoreboard registered a point for Lee.

A chorus of boos immediately filled the arena. Campbell, still seated about 12 feet behind Warren’s corner, spread his arms and frantically looked around for answers that weren’t there.

“There were two things I saw,” Campbell said. “Rau’shee hit him; he got a point, twice. And twice Rau’shee threw punches and scored; he also got points. That determined the outcome of the fight.

“I’ll call the technical adviser and the people who were watching this away from the ring and see what they say. I’ll trust the judgment of the technical adviser, and anything I say, I’d rather say based on what he saw as opposed to what I saw sitting at the ring.”

Warren was the cornerstone of the American team. He was the surest of the sure bets. Campbell believes this loss, and the way it happened will have emotional ramifications on the remaining members of the team – especially with early losses to Javier Molina and Sadam Ali and with Gary Russell Jr. failing to make weight.

Warren’s loss leaves five American boxers.

“For him to lose, it could be disheartening for some of our other guys,” Campbell said. “That’s going to be our biggest fear. … I think they’re most definitely going to be psyched out. We have a psychologist around and we’re going to make sure she talks to the team. I’m sure all of them are going to be psyched out.”-Columnist Milo Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out Milo’s blog, The Extra Milo, at milobryant.freedomblogging.com

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