(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – Lightweight Queen Underwood (Seattle, Wash.) hoped to turn the tide for her U.S. team on Saturday night at the Pan American Games, but lost her opening bout on a tiebreaker decision in Guadalajara. The 2010 World Championships bronze medalist faced Puerto Rico’s Kiria Tapia in her Pan American Games opener on Saturday night at the Expo Guadalajara Arena.

Underwood battled both her opponent and a hostile Mexican crowd cheering for her Puerto Rican opponent throughout the contest. The score of the bout was close from start to finish with the two boxers tied at two after the first, and Underwood holding a 5-4 advantage at the halfway point of the bout. Underwood pushed her lead to an 11-8 margin after three rounds of boxing and looked to add to her lead in the fourth round. Despite her constant holding and Underwood clearly being the more active boxer, Tapia managed to pull the bout to a 14-14 tie in the final round of boxing. The Puerto Rican boxer was named the victor of the bout, based on her 48-41 total punch count edge.

“It was not one of my better fights. I expected to do a lot better than what I did in there and I expected to come out with a win,” Underwood said. “It’s very disappointing not to. I know I will have to prepare harder next time. It’s hard being at the top and losing.”

Despite the devastating loss, Underwood attempted to learn from her Pan American Games contest. “I’m more of a clean boxer and I have to work at more of the grabbing. When somebody grabs you, it’s a lot of struggle and a lot of work,” Underwood said. “I have to work on being rougher in the ring. A lot of these South American boxers are more physical in the ring, so I just can’t be the pretty boxer and expect to win in a clean way.”



The lone remaining U.S. female boxer will take the ring on Sunday. Middleweight Franchon Crews (Baltimore, Md.) will compete for her team’s first victory on Sunday in a bout with three-time World Champion Mary Spencer of Canada.

Terra is showing a live stream of the full duration of the Pan American Games and fans can watch live action at http://deportesus.terra.com/road-to-2012/2011-pan-american-guadalajara/live/.

U.S. Results
132 lbs/female: Kiria Tapia, PUR, dec. Queen Underwood, Seattle, Wash./USA, 17-17 (48-41)

USA Boxing, as the national governing body for Olympic-style boxing, is the United States’ member organization of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) and a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).