Fort Carson soldier plans to forge boxing future on his own

The message from International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge about the amateur boxing landscape was loud and clear.

"We have to wait for the Cubans to see how the different forces will be in balance," Rogge said at the World Boxing Championships in November in Chicago. "Wait for Cuba because that might change a lot of things."

Christopher Downs is tired of waiting.

The Fort Carson light-heavyweight will begin competition today in the second Olympic qualifier at an International Amateur Boxing Association tournament in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Also fighting for berths in the Beijing Games in August are five Olympic Training Center residents: lightweight Sadam Ali, light-welterweight Javier Molina, middleweight Shawn Estrada, heavyweight Deontay Wilder and super-heavyweight Michael Hunter.

Five OTC residents - light-flyweight Luis Yanez, flyweight Rau'shee Warren, bantamweight Gary Russell Jr., featherweight Raynell Williams and welterweight Demetrius Andrade - secured Olympic spots at the world championships.

Downs, 33, hopes to become the oldest American boxer to appear in the Olympics. Unlike other U.S. boxers, he is a sergeant first class in the Army and has served in Iraq.

A top-three finish qualifies Downs for Beijing. If he finishes outside the top three, his last chance is an April 23-30 qualifier in Guatemala City.

His stiffest challenge in Trinidad should come from Julio Cesar la Cruz, who upset Pan American Games silver medalist Yuciel Napoles at the Cuban national championships in January.

La Cruz didn't compete at the world championships because of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's fear of defections. Two Cuban boxers left their teammates during the Pan American Games in July in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and were later arrested and deported.

At the Pan American Games, Cuba won eight medals, including five golds, matching its output from the 2004 Athens Games. The 11-person team Cuba is sending to Trinidad is favored in the tournament with 163 boxers from 28 countries.

"I'm not worried about Cuba," Downs said. "Everybody knows Cuba is one of the amateur powerhouses. I've just got to listen to what my corner has to say and come up with a strategy and do what I have to do to win."

Downs said he's 90 percent healthy, having almost recovered from chipped bones in his left elbow, a sprained ligament in his left knee and a slipped disk in his back that slowed him at the world championships.

He looked quicker last month in a training camp at the OTC and narrowly lost a Feb. 24 bout to Russian Artur Beterviev, a world silver medalist.

"I'm pretty confident," Downs said. "The pressure is boxing up to my ability. There's always a little pressure. When your back is against the wall, you've got to perform to move on."