That's right, I don't even need a title. I just need that one word; 'Ogogo!'
If you haven't heard already; Team GB's Olympic hopeful Anthony Ogogo put on the performance of his life in the middleweight round of 16 and upset the reigning world champion Ievgen Khytrov.
Going into the fight, Ogogo was expected to put up a good fight but just not have enough skill or strength to compete with the Ukrainian knockout machine Ievgen Khytrov who was stood in front of him. However, right from the off Ogogo came out fast and through a lot of accurate combinations. We all knew that this would be his key to victory if there was an upset on the cards but we didn't expect it to be as effective as it was.
Ogogo won the first round pretty comfortably and the judges gave a score of 5-3. But in the second round Khytrov came on very strong and gave Ogogo two eight counts. However, one of them was for no apparent reason. The first one was definitely legitimate but when you watch the second one in slow motion the referee jumps in when the punches clearly land on Ogogo's gloves. Despite all of this, the Brit just did enough to make it a close round. He lost the round 7-6 which meant he was still one point up (11-10).
Ogogo now had two options. No.1: Run away for the whole round and try to defend his small lead or No.2: Come out all guns blazing in attempt to increase his lead and secure the victory. He chose the second one. The 23-year old rushed out of his corner and landed a few quick shots on Khytrov but unfortunately from that point the momentum switched and Khytrov controlled most of the action in the third and final round. Ogogo still managed to get a few scoring shots through but Khytrov was landing plenty too.
When the fight ended, nobody was quite sure who had won. I thought Ogogo had just done enough but like everyone else, I wasn't sure.
After a long and tense wait the scores finally came in. The two men had drawn 18-18 and then 52-52 on countback which meant the judges had to pick the boxer that they felt did better. And they all chose Mr. Anthony Ogogo, and I don't blame them. He showed so much heart, courage and passion to not only get through the fight but also do enough to win it. He was a huge underdog to get into the tournament but he got through, he was a huge underdog going into the fight but he upset the odds once again.
After eliminating the tournament favourite, a huge door has opened up for Ogogo. As long as he stays focused and doesn't lose his head he can definitely become British boxing's next gold medallist.
