Olympic Boxing Draw: Light Heavyweights

Quick thoughts on the Heavyweight Olympic boxing draw.
Official Link to the Light Heavyweight Draw

Light Heavyweight (81kg / 178 lbs)
Even before today’s first round Light Heavyweight session, the draw’s bottom quarter looked loaded; three of its eight competitors medaled at the 2007 World Championships in Chicago. After today two of those three competitors are gone, including in 2007 gold winner Uzbeki Abbos Atoev who was unexpectedly dominated by Tajikstan’s Djakhon Kurbanov 11-3.

Atoev crushed all competition on his way to gold in Chicago and his early exit is a shock. Atoev is not the first defending champ to exit the competition. Lightweight champ Frankie Gavin failed to make weight and will not through a punch.

Djakhon Kurbanov’s doesn’t get any easier despite his upset win. He will face strong Croatian Marijo Sivolija in the next round. The referee stopped Sivolija first round bout against Samoan Satupaitea Farani Tavui in the third round.

The other highly rated competitor to exit was Lithuanian Daugirdas Semiotas who fell 11-3 to fellow 2007 bronze winner Yerkebuian Shynaliyev from Kazakhstan.

The silver medalist in Chicago, Russian Artur Beterbiev, defeated his Swedish opponent Kennedy Katende 15-3 and must be considered a co-favorite along with Kurbanov and Shynaliyev. All three of these fighters are in the bracket’s bottom half.

The light heavyweight division is now suddenly wide open and both the Americans and the Cubans must be ruing the fact that they couldn’t qualify a competitor in this weight class.

(As a side note, the Beijing Olympic official press release headline announced “No Upsets in the Ring.” Um, I’m in Harrisburg, Pa. and I know that the reigning world champ lost. Is the smog that thick in Beijing?)

Round of 16
Thursday, August 14
2:30 a.m. – 4:30 a.m. EST

Quarterfinals
Tuesday, August 19
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. EST

Semifinals
Friday, August 22
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. EST

Final
Sunday, August 24
4:00 a.m. EST