Duke Ragan (born September 18, 1997) is an American

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who won a silver medal in the featherweight division at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo.

Amateur/Olympic career

After learning the sport at the Cincinnati Golden Gloves boxing club in the

Over-the-Rhine Over-the-Rhine (often abbreviated as OTR) is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Historically, Over-the-Rhine has been a working-class neighborhood. It is among the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United State ...

neighborhood of his hometown, Ragan won silver medals at the 2017 World Championships and the

2019 Pan American Games The 2019 Pan American Games ( es, Juegos Panamericanos de 2019, links=no), officially the XVIII Pan American Games and commonly known as the Lima 2019 Pan-Am Games or Lima 2019 ( qu, Limaq 2019), were a multi-sport event governed by the Panam Spo ...

as an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

in the

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

division. In June 2021, less than a year after he turned pro, Ragan learned he had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics as a featherweight. Ragan won his first four bouts in Tokyo to qualify for the gold medal bout, beating seeded

Samuel Kistohurry Samuel Kistohurry (born 1 March 1995) is a French boxer. He competed in the featherweight division at the 2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 ...

and

Serik Temirzhanov Serik Temirzhanov (born 24 May 1998) is a Kazakhstani boxer. He competed in the men's featherweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to ...

in the process. He lost the Olympic final 3:2 to fellow professional Albert Batyrgaziev of the Russian team. Ragan won the third round on four of the five judges' scorecards, but attributed his defeat to a slow start. Ragan still became the first professional boxer to win a medal for the U.S. team. He also became only the second silver medalist for the American men's team since 2004, joining

Shakur Stevenson Ash-Shakur Stevenson (born June 28, 1997) is an American professional boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBO featherweight title from 2019 to 2020, the WBO super featherweight title from 2021 to 2022, and ...

Professional career

Ragan turned pro in July 2020 with

James Prince James L. Smith (also referred to as James Prince, J. Prince, or Lil J.) (born October 31, 1965) is an American music executive, promoter and manager. He is the CEO and co-founder of the Houston based record label Rap-A-Lot. Smith and his son ...

as his manager. He was initially set to make his debut on August 8. In August, he signed a multi-year promotional contract with

Bob Arum Robert Arum (born December 8, 1931) is an American lawyer and boxing promoter. He is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. Prior to becoming a boxing promoter, Arum was employed as an attorn ...

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including Muh ...

, with his rescheduled debut set for August 22 against Luis Alvarado on the

undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

of Eleider Alvarez vs.

Joe Smith Jr. Joe Smith Jr. (born September 20, 1989) is an American professional boxer who held the WBO light heavyweight title from 2021 to June 2022. In 2016, Smith became the first boxer to score a stoppage victory over former undisputed middleweight ...

at the MGM Grand Conference Center in

Paradise, Nevada Paradise is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the 2020 census, making it the fif ...

. Ragan knocked Alvarado down with a right hand in the first round. He made it back to his feet before referee Jay Nady's count of ten. Disorientated, Alavarado turned his back on Nady which prompted him to call a halt to the contest, handing Ragan a first-round

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO) victory.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

Team USA profile for Duke Ragan
* 1997 births Living people American male boxers Boxers from Cincinnati Bantamweight boxers AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Boxers at the 2019 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in boxing Boxers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in boxing {{US-boxing-bio-stub