CHICAGO, Oct 26: US light heavyweight Christopher Downs’s victory at the World Boxing Championships on Thursday night was overshadowed by news that two Ugandan boxers and an Armenian fighter left their teams.

It appeared the missing athletes left voluntarily and have been in phone contact with family and friends, said Chicago police spokesman John Mirabelli. The names of the missing boxers weren’t immediately available.

Inside the ring, Downs, the oldest member of the US team and a veteran of the Iraq war, stayed even with Ismayl Sillakh of Ukraine, one of the top-ranked light heavyweights in the world, throughout the fight. The two were tied at 23 with 30 seconds to go in the fourth round.

Downs broke the tie with 10 seconds left. He moved ahead with another scoring hit shortly afterward, and after the referee handed out penalties to both boxers in the final seconds of the match, Downs won 27-25.

Downs’s win was the fourth US victory of the day.

Earlier, US lightweight Sadam Ali rallied for a 25-17 decision over Puerto Rico’s Jose Pedraza in a high-energy fight. And welterweight Demetrius Andrade, who fought immediately after Ali, defeated Georgia’s Kakahaber Jvania 22-11 in a slow-paced, physical bout.

US flyweight Rau’shee Warren took another step toward returning to the Olympics when he easily defeated 2004 Olympian Tulashboy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan in a 20-8 decision.

Warren is attempting to become the first US boxer in more than 20 years to compete in two Olympics. The last US boxer to compete in two Olympics was Davey Lee Armstrong in 1972 and 1976.

The top eight finishers in the light flyweight (48kg) to light heavyweight (81kg) divisions and the top four from the heavyweight and super heavyweight classes will qualify for the Beijing Olympics. —AP