RENO -- Qualifying for the Olympics in boxing is difficult and complicated enough as it is, but the process got just a little harder for several fighters after Saturday night's finals of the U.S. trials.
While five boxers -- heavyweight Cam Awesome, super heavyweight Marlo Moore, light heavyweight Jonathan Esquivel, middleweight Charles Conwell and bantamweight Shakur Stevenson -- won their divisions to take a large step toward the 2016 Games in Rio, four other divisions still need to be resolved because challengers won those bouts in the double-elimination tournament. Light flyweight Leroy Davila, flyweight Antonia Vargas, welterweight Paul Kroll and light welterweight Gary Russell won their fights, setting up bouts for their division championships Sunday.
To advance, they will have to beat their opponents for the second day in a row and, in three cases, they will be facing those fighters for the third time this week: Davila will fight Nico Hernandez, Vargas faces Brent Venegas III and Russell goes against Jaron Ennis. Vargas said three fights against the same opponent in a seven-day span is a little weird. "Usually we do that in like three months and we're doing it in a week. It's something new."
Asked why so many qualifiers won Saturday, Kroll said: "Hard work. We want it more."
They also had to fight more. All will have to fight at least six bouts compared to four for Saturday's champs, while Russell will be fighting his seventh in seven days. "It's very exhausting, it really is," he said. "And one more to go. It ain't over."
It ain't over even if he wins. Winning at the U.S. trials does not guarantee an Olympic berth -- boxers can only qualify for the Olympics by also placing in one of three international tournaments, the first of which will be in Argentina in March. Although at least one American has failed to qualify internationally in the past three Olympics, all of Saturday's division champs expressed high confidence they will do so.
"I think my chances are real good. I've never lost [internationally]," Stevenson said.
Russell, meanwhile, was hopeful he can join his older brother, WBC welterweight champion Gary Russell Jr. (yes, they are both named Gary) in an elite group of U.S. challengers who made the Olympic team through the losers bracket. Two of the others are Evander Holyfield and Floyd Mayweather.
While Russell and others prepared for Sunday, Teofimo Lopez had other things to consider. He won the lightweight division by beating Maliek Montgomery. But unless something drastic occurs, he will not represent the U.S. at the Olympics because Carlos Balderas already qualified in that weight class through the World Series of Boxing.
"It shouldn't be the way it is," Lopez said. "This is where we come to fight. The other nine weight classes are here to fight for that spot to go to Rio. ... I earned this spot at my weight. I don't want to take anything away from Carlos Balderas, but if he wants to show he is the Olympian in [lightweight], he's gotta come here and fight. I would love to have a box-off with him but I know that's not going to happen.
Because his parents are from Honduras, Lopez could possibly fight for that country in Rio.
"I was born in the United States and my dream was to represent the USA. But now I'll have to go a different route," he said. "I might go to Honduras to represent there. My family is from there. I'm not, I'm from the USA. But my dream is to go to Rio. And if that's the way, I might take it. I might. I'm not 100-percent sure yet."
Meanwhile, Saturday's other division champs celebrated and looked toward Rio. A happy and tearful Awesome said he would celebrate by playing Monopoly in his hotel room. "If I lose at Monopoly it will ruin this moment for me," he joked.