Teaunce Shepherd loses his opening bout

Colorado Springs, Colo. Bantamweight Teaunce Shepherd became the first casualty of Wisconsin's six-boxer contingent at the U.S. Championships Tuesday when he lost a 9-4 decision to unheralded Jesus Vega of Salinas, Calif.

Shepherd's brother, LeChaunce, nearly became the second casualty when he let his brother's defeat get the better of him and break his concentration.

"I got tired in the third round," said Teaunce Shepherd, a 17-year-old senior at Milwaukee Tech High school who had an opening-round bye. "It was a fast-paced fight, and I just didn't have anything left."

He seemed to have trouble solving Vega's unorthodox left- handed counterpunching style. Despite that, Teaunce seemed to land the more telling blows in the first two rounds as Vega took a 4-3 lead in the low-scoring bout.

Teaunce faded badly in the third round, however, as Vega seized control with left-handed hooks. He rocked the Milwaukeean with a hook as the bout ended.

LeChaunce Shepherd, who also had a first-round bye, admitted his head wasn't in the lightweight bout after his brother's upset minutes before, but he managed to score a 30-24 victory over Lee Gladden of the Camp LeJeune Marines.

"My mind wasn't even close to being in the fight because of what happened to my brother," LeChaunce said. "I felt that his fight was scored unfairly and that the judges wanted the other guy to advance. Teaunce lost the third round, but I think he clearly won the first two rounds, so it shouldn't have even been close at the end."

Region VI coach Israel Acosta wasn't pleased with the decision either, but he saw it differently than LeChaunce.

"I couldn't believe they didn't give Teaunce any points in the third round," Acosta said. "That killed him. Still I thought it could have gone either way. Flip a coin."

Another falls: Milwaukee featherweight Roberto Caban became the area's second casualty when he dropped a heart-breaking, 27-26 decision to Dustin Kim of Waipahu, Hawaii.

"I wanted to save some energy for the later rounds, because some of the other guys on the team had been getting tired," Caban said. "I guess maybe I shouldn't have held back. I'm still not tired."

Gould learns fast: Kendall Gould, a welterweight from Milwaukee, learned from his experience Monday night and turned in the most impressive performance by a local boxer yet.

Gould stopped left-hander Jose Varela of Phoenix at 1 minute, 7 seconds of the first round by shifting to a left-handed stance. He learned the maneuver after a rather lackluster performance against another lefty, Robert Linton, on Monday night.

"I went southpaw (against Varela), and I knocked him down," Gould said. "So I tried it again, and that was the end of it."

Breath of air: Marvin Artley of Madison got a much needed night off when the super heavyweight brackets had to be redrawn because of the death of the mother of Flint, Mich., boxer Alvin Manley.

Too quick: Milwaukee flyweight Wilson Areizaga used his quickness and superior reach to score a 10-6 decision over Freddie Dupree of Fort Hood, Texas.

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