In our light heavyweights first day summary we said that Tajikstan’s Djakhon Kurbanov “dominated” defending world champ Abbos Atoev and merely that the referee stopped Croatian Marijo Sivolija-Jelica bout against Samoan Satupaitea Farani Tavui in the third round.
That was before we saw the matches on TV which were shown on tape delay in the United States. We take back everything we said. Print results can be deceiving. To our eyes Djakhon Kurbanov didn’t dominate Abbos Atoev at all. The fight looked very close to us. In fact we might have even thought Atoev landed more clean punches than the …read more

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. …read more