Six wins for Team USA on first day of Strandja tournament

Team USA started off strong in Sofia, Bulgaria at the 2023 Strandja Tournament, going 6-2, during the first day of oldest international amateur boxing competition in Europe.

Bantamweight (54 kg) duo Shera Mae Patricio (Hawaii) and Jewry Rodriguez (Houston) picked up unanimous decision victories to begin the day as both boxers will have a rest day on Tuesday before stepping into the ring for their second bouts of the tournament on Wednesday.

The winning ways continued in the first session of the day, with Emilio Garcia (Laredo, Texas) putting on a dominating performance over Sweden’s Hampus Bromman to advance the American light welterweight (63.5 kg) to a bout against Armenia’s Artur Shakhpazyan on Tuesday.

Omari Jones (Orlando) picked up Team USA’s fourth win of the day after the referee stopped the bout in the 71-kg category early in the second round after Jones proved to be too much for Kosovo’s Patriot Behrami. The American will be back in action on Tuesday when he will go head-to-head against Nikolai Terteryan of Denmark.

The second session of the day saw mixed results for Team USA, going 2-2 to close out the day.

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Featherweight (57 kg) Jajaira Gonzalez (Glendora, Calif.) picked up her own RSC victory after giving her opponent, Zahra Zobeidi Hayam Fatma of Algeria, two back-to-back standing eight counts late in the first round. Gonzalez will face Svetlana Kamenova of Bulgaria during Friday’s quarterfinal bouts.

The second featherweight of the American featherweight duo, Alyssa Mendoza (Caldwell, Idaho), grabbed her own victory in her international debut. Mendoza took all five judges’ cards over Ireland’s Kelsey Leonard to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.

Jennifer Lozano (Laredo, Texas) and Morelle McCane (Cleveland) put up tough fights against their respective opponents, however, fell short of advancing to the next round of competition.

Joining Garcia and Jones during tomorrow’s sessions will be Jahmal Harvey (Oxon Hill, Md.), who will face a familiar opponent, Luiz Oliveira of Brazil. The two most recently met at the 2022 AMBC Elite Championships finals, where Oliveira took the decision, however, Harvey leads their matchups 2-1 overall.

This year marks the 74th edition of the Strandja Tournament, which has 398 boxers from around the world competing this week.