Rau'shee Warren

Rau'shee Warren (born February 13, 1987) is an American amateur boxer and the 2007 flyweight world champion.

Career

Warren hails from the impoverished Westwood community of Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of 6, he started working out at the same "East Side gym" where Aaron Pryor used to train. The fast southpaw won his first amateur fight at the age of 8 years.

In 2004, at the age of 17, he upset Rayonta Whitfield and Diego Hurtado and international competitors Raul Castaneda (Mexico), and Miguel Miranda (Venezuela) to become the U.S. 106-pound light flyweight representative in Athens.

In Greece he was not only the youngest boxer in the field but the youngest American male in general at the Olympics. In the first round he ran into one of the top favourites in China's Zou Shiming and was eliminated.

He moved up to flyweight soon after and in 2005 and 2006 became US champion. At the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Mianyang he avenged a previous loss to European champion Georgy Balakshin before losing to the Korean surprise winner Lee Ok-Sung and having to settle for bronze.

In 2006 Light middleweight Akima Stocks and him have been named "USA Boxing’s 2006 Athletes of the Year". In this year he also tested the waters at bantamweight in an international event. In November he lost against Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux, widely regarded as the pound for pound best amateur fighter.

In 2007 he again became flyweight US champion.

At the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Chicago he was successful beating among others three time European Champion Georgy Balakshin like in 2005 (see above) and Samir Mammadov‎ to reach the finals whwere he beat Thai Somjit Jongjohor.He will be the first American boxer in more than 30 years to compete in two Olympic Games, the last American to do so was Davey Lee Armstrong in 1972 and '76.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Warren lost in the first round, again to Lee Ok-Sung, after mistakenly believing he was in the lead at the end of the bout. [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/SPORTS17/80812035/1065/SPORTS17]

ee also

*Luis Yanez
*Gary Russell Jr.
*Raynell Williams
*Sadam Ali
*Javier Molina
*Demetrius Andrade
*Deontay Wilder

External links

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9544-2004Aug17.html Washington Post 2004]
* [http://www.boxing-scoop.com/show_boxer.php?boxer_ID=920 Rau'shee Warren Amateur Boxing Record]
* [http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819129_1819134_1826038,00.html "Rau'Shee Warren"] , n°56 on "Time"’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"