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Saturday, April 12, 2003

From local dispatches

Verquan Kimbrough withdrew from a boxing match scheduled for tonight as part of the Western Pennsylvania Golden Gloves inside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and his trainer figures the recently deposed national champion could use the break.

Kimbrough, of Aliquippa, was upset March 26 in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Championships, a 30-20 loss to Weston Ferguson of Detroit. So ended Kimbrough's two-year run as champion of the 132-pound division. It also dealt a blow to his 2004 Olympic hopes, but it didn't knock him out.

He still can qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials by winning the national Police Athletic League championships in September, winning those same U.S. Championships in March or even through next winter's Eastern Trials -- a route he took three years ago to the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials.

"He's been No. 1 for two years," trainer Tom Yankello said. "It's tough to keep that."

Kimbrough's loss in the U.S. Championships to Ferguson -- "eight times out of 10, he beats that kid," Yankello said -- might have been a by-product of a back injury shortly before tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo. "You could see where his back wasn't the same," Yankello said. "And the fight could have gone either way. It was 17-17 going into the last round."