London isn't calling boxer Kenny Lally's name.
The 22 year old from Prince George lost on points Wednesday to Puerto Rican Jeyvier Cintron at the AIBA American Olympic Qualifying event in Rio de Janeiro, ending Lally's dream of representing Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.
Lally's Inner City Boxing Club coach Bob Pegues said he knew the result wasn't good when he didn't receive the customary phone call from his fighter.
"Usually he phones me within minutes," said Pegues. "So it must be bad news."
It was. When Pegues received Lally's call about 15 minutes later he learned Cintron won the flyweight (52 kilogram) fight 16:7.
"He is very, very disappointed," said Pegues. "He said, he was flat and he couldn't get it going. He just had one of those days."
Before stepping into the ring Lally was confident having faced his opponent in an exhibition bout in April. Last month two fighters faced off in Puerto Rico where Cintron won a controversial split decision.
"Everybody knew Kenny won the fight but their was five Puerto Rican judges in Purtero Rico," said Pegues. "When he phoned me he said it doesn't matter for anything so I don't care. He was really looking forward to this [re]match."
Pegues said perhaps Lally's default win Monday was a factor in the loss.
"Maybe the inactivity on Monday, by not getting to fight was a factor," he said. "He was so up for that match and it went ka-poof and he just didn't come back."
Lally's scored a walkthrough to the second fight Monday when his Uruguay opponent Ruben Dario Casero Vitalis didn't show up in the allotted time before disqualification. It was later discovered the bus the Uruguay fighter was on was stuck in a traffic jam.
In Wednesday's loss, Pegues said the opening round of three was tentative with Cintron gaining the 4:3 edge. But the Puerto Rican dominated the next two rounds scoring identical 6:2 wins.
With his tournament done Lally will stay in Rio until Sunday cheering on the two remaining Canadians - Samir El Mais (91 kilograms, heavyweight) and Simon Kean (plus-91 kilograms, super-heavyweight).
Pegues said despite the loss Lally was happy about one thing.
"The only good news is, he said, there's no reason ever for me to have to see 52 kilograms again," regurgitated Pegues.
After a possible summer hiatus, Pegues said Lally will move up two classes into lightweight, dropping down for big matches into the bantam weight class.
Pegues said their sights are set on the 2013 world championship and on using their experience to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
"We're going to try and qualify him before the qualifiers," said Pegues. "You can do that by accumulating enough points internationally. We learned a lot. It was our first run at getting to the Olympics and they say that going through the process of elimination to get into the Olympics is harder than winning a medal at the world championship. We know now what we've got to do next time."
