Rau'shee Warren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rau'Shee Warren (born: 13-Feb-1987 in Cincinnati ) is a an American amateur boxer. At age 18 he won a bronze medal at the world championships at flyweight.
[edit] Career
Warren hails from the impoverished Westwood community of Cincinnati. 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 (Venezuela), and Miguel Miranda (Mexico) 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 U.S.American male in general at the Olympics. In the first round he ran into one of the top favourites in Chinese Zou Shiming who later won bronze and became world champ the next year 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 Russian European champ 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 a close fight against Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux, widely regarded as the pound for pound best amateur fighter.
He can become the first boxer in 30 years to compete in two Olympic Games if he makes the 2008 Olympic Team in August.
