Finnish boxer Mira Potkonen takes home Olympic bronze after giving her Brazilian opponent Beatriz Ferreira a fiery fight.
TOKYO—Finnish boxer Mira Potkonen, 40, will bring back an Olympic bronze medal to Tampere from the Tokyo Games after a fierce fight against Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira, 28, who eventually won the match 5—0 on Thursday morning.
The score, however, does not portray an accurate picture of how hard Potkonen fought against her Brazilian counterpart who took many of Potkonen’s sledgehammer crosses on the chin.
There was no slouching in this match that lasted all four two-minute rounds.
The score, however, does not portray an accurate picture of how hard Potkonen fought against her Brazilian counterpart who took many of Potkonen’s sledgehammer crosses on the chin.
Potkonen took the advantage in the first round by pressing hard and landing many lefts and rights. In the middle, Ferreira seemed to wake up and find her rhythm. But this didn’t stop the furious Finn from landing shots.
After the first, neither of the fighters seemed to slow down. It became a clash of two different styles where Ferreira represented a more agile style of bobbing, slipping and weaving while Potkonen pummeled her with punches hoping to land as many as she could.
Both fighters were familiar with their opponent’s ways. (They have faced three times before; Potkonen won two of the fights.) Potkonen knew that the Brazilian would be quick, if not quicker, in counterpunching, but Potkonen didn’t seem to care. Ferreira countered with hooks, Potkonen took them on the chin and body, while searching for that gap where her right cross on the chin could have knocked the Brazilian on the mat.
Sadly that didn’t happen.
Potkonen will return with her second medal in a row in Olympics (bronze in Rio de Janeiro 2016), a feat no other female athlete in Finland has ever done before.
After the fight, Potkonen burst into tears.
But she had made Olympic history.
