championship he defeated Quantis Graves and won the final 31–15 over southpaw James Zimmerman of San Jose, California.Īt the Olympic trials, he beat Graves twice more and won the Olympic trials in only 21 bouts. Early in 2008 he scored a career-best win by edging out world championship silver medalist and future Olympic champion Rakhim Chakhiyev in Russia.
He qualified for the Olympics by beating Deivis Julio 6:5 Jorge Quinones from Ecuador on double countback and Brazilian Rafael Lima 6:5 at the qualifier.
