Eight bouts in the women's flyweight division take place Thursday afternoon at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo. All four top seeds appear in the Round of 16, beginning with number-one ranked Buse Naz Cakiroglu (Turkey) versus Tursunoy Rakhimova (Uzbekistan) in the first bout.
Ginny Fuchs' Olympic dream ends on a sour note. The Houston southpaw suffered a repeat loss to Bulgaria's Stoyka Krastva, this time coming in the Round of 16 in the flyweight division at the Tokyo Olympics. Krasteva—a 2012 Olympian who fought under her maiden name Stoyka Petrova—prevailed by scores of 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 Thursday evening at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Bakhodir Jalolov (Uzbekistan) advanced to the quarterfinal round with relative ease, as the number-one seed at super heavyweight manhandled Mahammad Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) en route to a three-round shutout win. Scores were 30-27 on four scorecards and 30-26 on the fifth card.
Troy Isley's journey from the amatuer to the pros and back to the amateurs ends with a heartbreaking defeat. The Top Rank-signed middleweight from Alexandria, Virginia came up just short in a Round of 16 bout with number-two seed Gleb Bakshi, dropping a disputed split decision. Isley won by scores of 29-28 and 29-28 on two cards, trumped by tallies of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 for Bakshi in a competitive affair Thursday at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Hosting nation Japan enjoyed success early in the Olympics but has slowly been brought back to reality as the Games have progressed. A reminder of this was found in the Round of 16 middleweight battle that saw number-one seed Oleksandr Khyzhniak (Ukraine) remind the world why he is heavily favored to win Gold, following a three-round wipeout of Yuito Moriwaki (Japan). Khyzhniak swept every round, winning by scores of 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-26 and 30-26.
By Cliff Rold - It’s easy to take things for granted when they happen so regularly. For the United States, Olympic Gold medals were something one could take for granted for a long time. Sometimes, the men’s boxing team would win more. Sometimes less.
Bakhodir Jalolov sent a message to the rest of the super heavyweight field. The hulking 6'7" southpaw from Uzbekistan charged into the quarterfinal round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics following a one-sided drubbing of Azerbaijan's Mahammad Abdullayev.
Misery continues to find the Kazakhstan Olympic boxing team in Tokyo. Bekzad Nurdauletov entered Tokyo as the number-one seed at light heavyweight, but is instead shown the door following a split decision defeat to Imam Khataev (ROC) in a sensational Round of 16 battle Wednesday afternoon at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo. Khataev prevailed by scores of 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, while Nurdauletov—who fought back tears as the decision was revealed—managed a 29-28 on just one scorecard.
Kurt Walker (Ireland) delivered arguably the biggest upset of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to date, following a split decision win over number-one seeded featherweight Mirazizbek Murzakhalilov (Uzbekistan). Walker overcame cuts over both eyes to prevail on four of the five judges. Mirzakhalilov won 30-27 on one card, overruled by scores 29-28 on each of the remaining four cards Wednesday afternoon at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Lauren Price (Great Britain) fittingly kicked off the women's middleweight Round of 16, retaining her number-one seed following a landslide unanimous decision win over Myagmarjargal Munkhbat (Mongolia).