LIVERPOOL, England – Day one of the inaugural World Boxing Championships in Liverpool was an entertaining affair.
Although the official name for the sport is “amateur boxing”, the “Olympic Style Boxing” label that World Boxing are trying to push is perhaps more fitting. There was certainly nothing amateurish from the preliminary rounds of the tournament. The morning session was kicked off by the Women’s 55kg category and Spain’s Marta Lopez Del Arbol impressed with a routine win over Slovakia’s Nicole Durikova.
The USA had a very successful first day in the tournament. All five of their boxers registered wins and booked themselves a quarter-final slot. Rene Camacho (Men’s 65kg), Carlos Flowers (Men’s 70kg), Ramon Ordonez (60kg), Orlando Zamora-Garcia (Men’s 55kg), and Malachi Georges (Men’s 90kg) all won in their respective weight categories. The pick of the bunch was New Jersey’s Georges who defeated Estonia’s Stiven Aas by unanimous decision. Georges displayed a razor-sharp southpaw jab and never seemed in any trouble during the contest.
Another of the standout performers of the day was the Philippines' Carlo Paalam, who defeated Chiao-Chun Hsu in the Men’s 55kg category. It was clear to see why the skills of Paalam had earned him a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, as he played with Hsu at times on his way to a unanimous decision victory.
The home nation, England, had a great start to the day with Ellis Trowbridge beating Albania’s Ardit Murja with relative ease in the Men’s 55kg category. England’s success was continued in the evening session with two more wins: Lauren Mackie defeated China’s Wanqi Cao in the Women’s 54kg category, while Chantelle Reid beat New Zealand’s Morgan Adele Henderson. Men’s 90kg Isaac Okoh was the first of the home nation to suffer defeat, losing by split-decision to Kazakhstan's Sagyndyk Togambay.
One of the most impressive fighters of the day was Cuba’s Luis Enrique Vinet Garcia, who danced his way to victory against Croatia’s Vide Prkacin. One of the fights of the day came in the Men’s 80kg category, when Amar Koci had to dig deep to edge past Iran’s Meysam Gheshlaghi. Koci was down on the cards after two rounds and forced two counts in the third to take the victory via split decision.
Full list of results from day one can be found here: https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/competition-documents