(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – The 2011 AIBA Men’s World Boxing Championships official event draw took place on Sunday in Baku, Azerbaijan, determining the brackets for all 10 men’s weight classes at the critical event. The draw was held following a general weigh in for all of the competitors and prior to the Opening Ceremony at the Sport and Exhibition Centre.
Light flyweight Eros Correa (San Jose, Calif.) and heavyweight Joseph Williams (Queens, N.Y.) will open the competition for Team USA, taking the ring on the opening day of action on Baku on Monday. Correa will face off with Jason Lavigilante of Mauritius in his World Championships debut in afternoon competition while Williams battles Slovakia’s Sandro Dirnfeld in the evening session.
The United States squad will return to action on Wednesday, September 28 as bantamweight Joseph Diaz, Jr. (S. El Monte, Calif.) and light heavyweight Marcus Browne (Staten Island, N.Y.) both compete in first round action. Diaz’s first bout will showcase a contest with Myanmar’s Kyaw Latt while Browne will face Yoshitsuna Okada of Japan.
On Friday, September 30, two more U.S. boxers will step through the ropes in Baku. Welterweight Errol Spence (Desoto, Texas) is competing in his second World Championships and he will look to use his previous experience in his bout with Iran’s Amin Ghasemi. In light welterweight action, United States Marine Jamel Herring (Coram, N.Y./Camp Lejeune, N.C.) will take on China’s Qing Hu.
Lightweight Jose Ramirez and middleweight Jesse Hart (Philadelphia, Pa.) will both make their World Championships debuts on the final day of first round competition in Baku. Ramirez will face Armenia’s Vladimir Sarukhany in the opening round contest while Hart challenges Hzam Nabah of Qatar.
Flyweight Rau’shee Warren (Cincinnati, Ohio) and super heavyweight Lenroy “Cam” Thompson (Lenexa, Kansas) both drew opening round byes and will take the ring for the first time in second round competition on Sunday, October 2. Warren, who will be competing in his third World Championships in Baku, took gold in his last world tournament in 2007 en route to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He will start his road toward a second world title one week from today in a contest with the winner of the first round bout between 2008 Olympian Georgiy Chygayev of Ukraine and Australia’s Andrew Moloney. Thompson will battle Alexey Muhkin of Australia in his first bout in Baku next Sunday.
The United States squad arrived in Baku on September 18, and has enjoyed a full week of acclimation and final preparation the opening day of competition. The 10-man team is joined in Baku by USA Boxing National Coach Joe Zanders (Long Beach, Calif.), coaches Ronald Simms (Stafford, Va.) and Manny Robles (Los Angeles, Calif.), technical advisor Ken Porter (Akron, Ohio), and Team Manager Ken Buffington (Marshalltown, Iowa).
The 2011 World Championships are the first international qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the light flyweight through light heavyweight boxers must place in top ten to qualify for London while Williams and Thompson need to place in the top six.
For the full brackets for all 10 weight classes and the most up-to-date results, go to http://www.aiba.org/en-US/2011/2011WorldBoxingChampionships.aspx . AIBA will show live scoring on its website, www.aiba.org throughout the tournament and will be webcasting all the bouts beginning with quarterfinal action on October 4 at www.aibaboxing.tv . For more information on Team USA, go to www.usaboxing.org . USA Boxing will tweet all the American results as they happen @usaboxing.