Two Texans Score International Gold in Ecuador

Two Texans take home international championship gold at The American Boxing Confederation (AMBC) elite Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The tournament ran from March 22 to April 2. Jennifer Lozano from Laredo captured a finals victory and dominated the tournament from start to finish. The Gateway City native took a 5-0 decision over Argentine fighter Tatiana Flores Milagros of Argentina to capture the 50 KG (110-pound) championship. On the men's side, in the 51 KG division (112 pounds), championship Roscoe Hill, from Spring, Texas, takes home the Gold after also taking a 5-0 decision over Argentine Ramon Quiroga dominated Romero Reyes Erislan of Cuba in the Gold Medal round.

19-year-old Hill, came out of some level of obscurity to capture the silver medal in the 2021 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, back in November. In his first international tournament, Hill scored staggering upsets over seasoned vets like Federico Serra of Italy on his way to coming up just short to Kazakhstan fighter Saken Bibossinov and capturing Silver. If 2021 was his coming out party he certainly made a bold statement to start 2022 in Ecuador to show 2021 was no fluke. He received a bye in the first round due to his high seeding and then beat Martin Perez of Panama by 5-0 decision, also shout our Quiroga to advance to the finals and then handed in the Gold Medal performance by outclassing Reyes Erislan of Cuba.

Lozano captured the national championship title at Shreveport back in December when she outpointed Kayla Gomez of El Paso in the finals. She came out and put together an absolutely dominated week of boxing. She blanked Liliana Murillo Deicy of Columbia (5-0) in the first round. Stopped Ecuador's Genesis Gomez in front of her home crowd in the second round and then dominated Flores Milagros to capture the Gold medal. 

Texas was well represented in addition to Hill and Lozano. There were many other Texans  representing the US in the Contential Championships including Emilio Garcia,  of Laredo, Kayla Gomez of El Paso, and Josh Edwards of Houston who won his first-round contest over Mexican boxer Luis Gomez Meneses, by a score of 5-0.

Roscoe Hill takes Silver at AIBA World Championship

Roscoe Hill, will return to Spring, Texas with the silver medalist. Bringing back the silver medal in the 2021 AIBA World Championships in the Flyweight (51kg) division, to the Lone Star State. The Houston-area native has much to feel good about. He rose from relative obscurity, at least on the international scale, to stardom putting on a boxing clinic and catching the attention of the international boxing community. Showing off a boxing IQ allows him to control the distance and pace of the fight in addition to allusive defensive skills that made him nearly impossible to hit and the ability to fight at all three distances.

Hill, comes up just short in his bid for the Gold at The 2021 championships losing a decision to Kazakh fighter Saken Bibossinov. After a largely uneventful first round in which two natural counter-punchers felt each other out and exchanged jabs in what appeared to everyone as a fairly even round ended in a 5-0 round for the Kazakh fighter and inexplicably the German judge scored the even and largely uneventful round 10-8 for Bibossinov, an absolutely mind-boggling score. The second appeared to go much better for the Texan who knowing he had dropped the first round picked up the pace and started attacking landing with just not the jab but scoring with the straight right hand as well. As the bell rang it appeared that Hill had evened up the bout. However, the judges saw it very differently than the spectators. Again scoring 5-0 for the Kazakh fighter. That put Hill, who seemingly should have been no worse than all square after two, behind two points on four of the cards and somehow three points down on the fifth.  The writing was on the wall and Hill was at the point of no return. Having to change the game plan and fight out of his preferred style he dropped the third as well. Settling for a well-earned Silver medal.

Despite settling for the Silver Hill was one of the surprising stars of the tournament that took place in Belgrade. Serbia. Winning his first four fights with his dazzling boxing skills. He outpointed Mario Lavegar of the Dominican Republic in the opening round. Next, he outclassed Artur Hovhannisyan of Armenia. Then he started upsetting some of the favorites in the tournament in the round of eight he showed the Italians not to mess with Texas when he gave a one-sided beat down to Italian favorite Federico Serra and then pulled another major upset but ending the run of Russian stand out Akhtem Zakirov who was putting together a spectacular run himself, before running into Hill.

Spring Native Advances to Semi Finals of AIBA World Championship

The great state of Texas will be represented in the medal rounds of the 2021 AIBA World Championship as Spring native has secured a medal and a pot in the "final four" of the tournament, after defeating veteran Federico Sera of Sardegna, Italy. He will battle Akhtem Zakirov of other Russian Boxing Federation (RBF). Hill strung together two highly impressive performances in as many days after outpointing Artur Hovhannisyan of Armenia in the round of 16 he was equally as impressive against the Italian in the Quarter Finals advancing himself to the medal rounds. The performance against the Armenian displayed the complete range of skills from the talented Texan. In the opening round Hill out jabbed Hovhannisyan from long range. In the second round, a confident Hill stood in the pocket and used the Philly shell defense to profection, making his opponent miss from the mid-range and scored him with laser-like counter shots, landing perfectly placed right hands and left hooks. Having the fight won on the cards Hill got on the back foot and put on a clinic against Hovhannisyan moving smoothly making his Armenian rival miss and potshotting him when he did.

In the quarter-finals, Hill put on a masterclass performance and was more slippery than a bar of soap. Serra, the 27-year-old Italian veteran could not track down his taller and quicker outpoint. At a sizeable height disadvantage, the 5 foot three and a half-inch Serra could not get in range and track down the Texan. Hill controlled the distance liked a seasoned pro used every square inch of the ring and controlled all three rounds with his jab and movement and straight right hands securing the points victory and a date with the Russian, Zakirov, in the semi-finals of the 2021 world championships. He has guaranteed himself no worse than a Bronze. Should the Spring, native, secure the victory he will move onto the good medal match.

Roscoe Hill Advances in AIBA Elite Men’s World Championships

About 25 miles north of Houston, is a town of about 50,000 people called Spring, Texas. If you have not heard of it, you are about to. Amature stand-out Roscoe Hill calls the town of Spring home. Hill is emerging as an absolute powerhouse in the international amateur scene. Not just as one of the best US amateurs but one of the best in the world. The flyweight was the lone member of Team USA to fight during the second day of boxing at the 2021 AIBA Elite Men’s World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The Texan put on an absolute show against Mario Lavegar of the Dominican Republic. Hill seized control of the fight from the opening moments on. Dominating both the first two rounds of the affair. Taking them both 5-0 and scoring a standing 8 count in the second secured him a 10-8 round on one of the cards in the second stanza. Ahead on points, Hill didn't rest sit on his points lead. Hill jammed on the gas and continued to punish his Dominican foe unleashing a barrage of power shots again bringing in the referee to give Lavegar yet another standing 8 count. This time the referee waved off the bout at roughly the midway point of the stanza, giving the Texan the third-round TKO victory. The victory now moves him into the second round. Hill will have a few days to rest and prepare for his next opponent. He will battle with  Artur Hovhannisyan of Armenia, on Monday, November 1st. Hovhannisyan was a 2016 Olympian and lost to Spaniard Samuel Carmona in the opening round.