Update: Marietta Boxer Eliminated

Updated 7 a.m. Thursday

Marietta boxer Taversha Norwood's London Olympic dreams ended Wednesday night when she lost her flyweight fight to Tyrieshia Douglas and was eliminated from the Olympic trials.

The referee stopped the fight 1:18 into the fourth and final round, USA Boxing reported.

Norwood trailed throughout the bout and faced two standing 8 counts in the fourth round before the fight was stopped, blogger Girlboxing tweeted.

Original Report

London became a bit farther away Monday night for a Marietta boxer with Olympic dreams.

Taversha Norwood lost her opening bout of the inaugural U.S. Olympic women’s boxing trials at Northern Quest Resort near Spokane, WA.

Alex Moore of Monroe, WA, fighting with a home-state advantage, outpointed Norwood, 24-15, in their flyweight match, which will go down in history as the first Olympic trials bout ever for women.

It wasn’t a knockout for Norwood, but it left her one loss from elimination in the eight-woman tournament to pick the Olympic team’s 112-pound boxer.

She’ll have to rise out of the challengers bracket, although she gets a break today. An injury forced Cynthia Moreno to drop out before fighting Monday, so Norwood automatically advances to Wednesday’s semifinals of the challengers bracket.

Wednesday’s action should stream live starting at 10 a.m.

Even winning the Olympic trials won’t guarantee a place in the Summer Olympics in London, according to USA Boxing.

The trials will create a three-boxer team—one fighter each at the flyweight (112-pound), lightweight (132-pound) and middleweight (165-pound) classes—for the world championships in China in May.

To compete in London, a boxer will have to finish in the top eight in China.

Six-time national champion Marlen Esparza of Houston is the favorite in the flyweight division, the Los Angeles Times said.

Still, just making it to the trials is an accomplishment.

ESPNW chronicled Norwood’s journey there. She grew up in Rhine, GA—if reaching 5 feet tall can be considered growing up.

She was a gymnast until age 13, then a competitive cheerleader at Hawaii Pacific University, and now at age 28 she’s the Georgia women’s boxing champion, ESPNW said.

She also had one of the signature moments of Sunday’s draw for this week’s Olympic trials—the first stare-down of the night with Moore, sparking howls of delight from the coaches in the room—Sarah Demming wrote on The Huffington Post.

Norwood led through the first two rounds of Monday’s four-round fight, according to blogger Girlboxing, reporting on the bout on Twitter.

In a fast-paced first round, Norwood took a 5-4 lead, and she extended the edge to 10-7 after the second round.

“Norwood coming on strong,” Girlboxing wrote. “Both fighters really skilled!”

But Love bounced back to take a 15-14 lead through three rounds, then dominated the final round for the final 24-15 margin.

Girlboxing’s conclusion: “Both fighters very fierce.”