Springs boxer wins Olympic opener

BEIJING • Hearing a familiar voice made Shawn Estrada smile, even half a world away from home.

"Buena suerte," Juan Estrada told his son Friday from Los Angeles, where he's battling heart, kidney and liver problems.

The good-luck wish motivated the Olympic Training Center resident in a 10-2 win Saturday over Argentine Osvaldo Ezequiel Maderna in a 165-pound middleweight bout at Workers' Gymnasium.

Estrada, 23, overpowered Maderna for the second time in the past four months, executing consistent combinations for a 3-0 first-period lead that ballooned to 7-1 after the second and 8-2 after the third.

He advanced to Saturday's second round against Great Britain's James DeGale, a 13-4 winner over 2005 world bronze medalist Mohamed Hikal of Egypt. DeGale beat 2004 Olympic gold medalist Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan in January.

Two members of the eight-person OTC-based U.S. boxing team have first-round matches today. Javier Molina is a light-welterweight underdog, and reigning world champion Demetrius Andrade is favored in welterweight.

Juan Estrada, 64, watched his son's Olympic debut on TV since he's too sick to travel. He has been given a few months to live by doctors who told him he would die in January, his kidneys and liver slowly failing and his heart so weak he uses a pacemaker.

A former Mexican lightweight, the elder Estrada once coached Shawn, molding a rough but talented fighter whose biggest accomplishments are a 2005 World Cup win, a runner-up finish at the 2007 national championships and a third-round exit at the 2007 world championships.

"He says he wakes up in the morning just because of me," said Shawn Estrada, who has erected a shrine for his father in his room. "It's a good feeling to get out there and perform and do it for him."

U.S. coach Dan Campbell said Estrada is "a warrior. He's mentally very, very strong. That's the one thing people don't know about him. It's not just his physical strength."

Estrada longs for his father's next call.

"He pushes me - every phone call, every time I talk to him," he said. "It's a very inspirational thing."