By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com
LONDON, England-Glenville High School Graduate Terrell Gausha (pictured in boxing gear) got closer to a gold metal and made the Cleveland schools and America proud with a third round knockout at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games on Saturday of his opponent, Armenia's Andranik Hakobvan.
A middleweight division fighter, Gausha, 24, is among the 16 remaining amateur boxers out of the original 32 to advance to the quarter finals and will box again at 9:30 am on Thursday against Indian matinee idol Vijender.
"He knocked him out and you don't see that much in Olympic boxing," said Michael Nelson, an entrepreneur who owns the restaurant The Kitchen, and Lil Africa, a party and versatility building at 69th St and Superior Ave in Cleveland where Gausha had sparred in practice and regular boxing matches. "He is just another example of the Black males that graduate from the Cleveland Municipal School District and go on to make us proud."
A former Golden Gloves champion who began boxing at the age of 10, Gausha, who is Black, had lost the first round, and the second round was a 4-4 draw. But he stunned the audience and Hakobvan in the third round with an unexpected knockout.
After ballooning to over 200 pounds, he had all but given up on boxing last year.
"It seemed as though he had given up boxing, " Nelson said. "I worried that he might go to the streets."
Gashua has his fans with him to cheer him on , including his mother, his sister, and a group of friends and supporters.
The Olympic Games are held every four years.
The last time that London won the honor of hosting the games was in 1948 for some $117 thousand dollars. Now the costs is over $14 million.
Gashua is not the only famous boxing affiliate from Cleveland.
The predominantly Black major metropolitan city can also boast of nationally renowned boxing promoter Don King (pictured), who is also publisher of the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Oh.
Others from Cleveland that have gained worldwide fame include Johnny Kilbane, who held the world featherweight from 1912 to 1923, and Joey Maxim, the light heavyweight champion in the 1950s.
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by telephone at 216-659-0473.
