Cincinnati native Duke Ragan, a Western Hills High School graduate, reached the final in boxing's men's featherweight division at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a semifinal win by split decision Tuesday against Ghana's Samuel Takyi.
Ragan will face the winner of the other semifinal between Cuba's Lazaro Alvarez and ROC's Albert Batyrgaziev. The final will take place Thursday.
Andre Ward was the last American male to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing, in 2004. From Ward via Twitter:
Ragan reached the semifinals with a win by split decision Sunday against Ireland's Kurt Walker.
Earlier, Ragan advanced to the quarterfinals with a win by unanimous decision against Kazakhstan's Serik Temirzhanov, and won his and Team USA's first boxing bout of the Tokyo Games by earning a split decision victory against France's Samuel Kistohurry to reach the round of 16.
Ragan, who won silver at the 2017 World Championships and another silver at the 2019 Pan American Games, has a 4-0 record as a professional. Rule changes several years ago made American pros eligible for the Olympics.
Daugherty: A boxing achievement Duke Ragan can't easily share
Ragan became the first outright professional boxer to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics - according to Olympic historians - per nbcsports.com. He and two others who turned professional during the pandemic were added to the U.S. team via international allocations.
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