Mexican Boxer Marco Verde to Fight for Olympic Gold

The national boxing team, Marco Alonso Verde Álvarez, advanced this Tuesday to the final of the 71 kilogram category searching for painting gold the medal that he secured by qualifying for the semi-final round in his debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Marco Verde faced British Lewis Richardson in the run-up to the final, who after three rounds played in the emblematic Roland-Garros stadium, emerged victorious by split decision 3-2, taking rounds one and three.

Since Los Angeles 1984, a Mexican boxer had not advanced to the Olympic gold medal fight. On that occasion, Héctor López in the -54 kilogram division reached the final, which he finally lost to Italian Maurizio Stecca.

To reach this stage, the Central American champion in San Salvador 2023 and Pan American champion in Santiago 2023, had two previous victories against Tiago Muxanga of Mozambique in the Round of 16 and over the Indian Nishant Dev in the Quarterfinals.

The man from Mazatlán adds the fourth medal for Mexico in Paris 2024 after the bronze in women's archery and the two silver medals that judo and synchronized springboard diving gave to our country with the signature of Prisca Awiti, Osmar Olvera and Juan Manuel Celaya.

Marco Verde's medal means the return of Mexican boxing to the Olympic podium after the bronze obtained by Misael Rodríguez in Rio 2016, and which places him as number 14 in Mexican history within the event and the 77th in history in general.

The tricolor boxer will face Uzbek Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev next Friday, August 9, at the same venue.

I will trust my corner and my work for the final in Paris 2024: Marco Verde

Going step by step, fight by fight, was the philosophy that Marco Alonso Verde Álvarez imprinted for his first tour in the Olympic Games and this Tuesday he linked his third victory that positions him one win away from the gold in boxing in Paris 2024.

During the tournament, the boxer in the 71 kilogram category has highlighted his corner and the work that keeps him one step away from the gold medal and being able to close the successful cycle that he is starring in after his Central American and Pan American championships in 2023.

“We are already in the final, I arrived at the corner in the third round with the feeling that we won and that this fight could not be taken away from me, I was already focused on the third, I am not satisfied, and we are going to give everything in the last one,” he commented.

The fighter from Sinaloa continues to make history at the Olympic Games, since a Mexican has not competed in the final since Hector Lopez did so in Los Angeles 1984; the most recent boxing medal was won by Misael Hernandez with his bronze in Rio 2016.

“In the end I always mentally prepare myself that I am going to surprise, they should be overconfident, I am simply going to trust in my corner and my work,” he stressed.

Marco Verde will face the Uzbek Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev next Friday, August 9, at the emblematic Roland-Garros, a scenario that he had visualized, and where he recognizes that he will have a tough battle for the title.

“We know that Uzbekistan is always a power, I have already had to fight with them, I have lost, not with him, but with other rivals, it will be a fight more than anything of heart and with difficult rivals. I'm calm, but with the anxiety of the final, we have to relax now, and we have two days left to make weight," he explained.

Marco Verde faced the British Lewis Richardson in the semi-final of his category, a fight that ended with him winning by a split decision of 3-2.