![r. torrez jr olympic games tokyo 2020 r. torrez jr olympic games tokyo 2020](https://a2.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2021%2F0727%2Fr886142_1296x729_16-9.jpg)
He's far more accustomed to being on the delivery-side of those types of blows as evidenced by Torres Jr.'s powerful performance in a semifinal win over Kazakhstan's Kamshybek Kunkabayev (TKO) here in Tokyo, where he's aiming to become the first American to win Olympic super heavyweight gold in nearly four decades (and the first to fight for it since since Riddick Bowe did in 1988). learned that lesson the hard way when he was stretchered out of the ring at the 2019 AIBA world championships in Russia following a devastating punch from the huge Uzbek Bakhodir Jalolov (his country's flag bearer at the Rio 2016 Games, an undefeated pro, and - amazingly - Torrez Jr.'s opponent in the gold-medal final here in Tokyo). But in the boxing ring, you can lose a whole lot more. Show up unprepared on, say, the badminton court, you lose your match. This is the great motivator of all pugilists. It’s those hours and hours of grind, for years on end, that keep Torrez Jr. Then it just becomes a matter of ‘let’s do this.’” You think about all the time and dedication. “But then you get back in the corner, and you think about how hard you trained for the fight. “It’s definitely nerve-wracking when you have to look up at a guy to touch gloves because he’s close to seven feet tall and huge,” chuckled Torrez Jr., a ten-time youth national champion and the number-one ranked American – and third worldwide – in his weight class. It’s in those moments – when he touches gloves with an opponent who towers over him – that all the hard work kicks in. There’s a twinkle in the 21-year-old’s eye when he talks about taking on the biggest and the baddest from all the corners of the world.