Full guide to boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics
The matchups for all 13 boxing events at the 2024 Paris Olympics are now decided. Fighters from 68 countries will compete in the preliminary rounds, with half of them advancing to the next stage. Not every weight category has the same number of participants, and not all competitors will fight this weekend.
Many boxing matches usually start with 32 participants, except for men's flyweight, heavyweight, and super heavyweight divisions, as well as women's middleweight, which start with 16 participants. This weekend, only the heavyweights will be competing in the ring on Sunday.
The super heavyweight bouts will take place on Monday, while the competitions for the 16 men's flyweights and 32 women's featherweights (57 kg/125 lbs) aiming for the gold medal will start on Tuesday.
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Exciting American Knockouts
In the City of Light, eight American fighters are competing in the Olympics for the first time.
American lightweight Jajaira Gonzalez from Glendora, California, is leading the pack. She will face off against Estelle Mossely from France on Saturday at 3:20 PM Eastern Time.
Fellow team members Jennifer Lozano (in the flyweight category), Alyssa Mendoza (competing in the featherweight class), and Morelle McCane (welterweight, weighing 66kg/145 lbs) will all be participating in the competition this upcoming Sunday.
Three out of the four American male athletes- Roscoe Hill in the flyweight category, Jahmal Harvey in the featherweight category, and Omari Jones in the welterweight category (71 kg/146 lbs) - will be competing at various times on Sunday.
Joshua Edwards, a super heavyweight from Houston who is 24 years old, will face off against Diego Lenzi from Italy on Monday.
Check out: The U.S. boxing team going to Paris consists of all first-time Olympic competitors
Rivals' Return Sets Up Blockbuster Battles
The current champion in the super heavyweight division, Bakhodir Jalolov from Uzbekistan, was placed in the same group as Australian boxer Teremoana Junior after the boxing matchups were announced at the North Paris Arena on Thursday.
Last year in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's Jalolov, who holds the title of 2023 world champion and 2022 Asian Games champion, defeated Teremoana to win the gold medal at the World Championship.
The two will face off again in the quarterfinals, and Teremoana is determined to come out on top this time. "He should be the one feeling nervous, not me," Teremoana confidently stated to the press.
Another standout competitor in the division is the UK's talented Orie, who is set to face off against Armenian wrestler Davit Chaloyan, the runner-up at the 2021 world championships, in the opening rounds.
Julio Cesar La Cruz, who won gold in the light heavyweight division at the 2016 Rio Olympics and then again in the heavyweight division five years later in Tokyo, is now aiming for a third gold medal. He will be starting his journey against Loren Alfonso from Azerbaijan in the heavyweight category.
The gold medalist in the light flyweight division at the Rio Olympics, Hasanboy Dusmatov, may face off against Juanma Lopez from Puerto Rico in the second round of the flyweight division.
In the women's bracket, the current champion in the lightweight division, Kellie Harrington, starts off with a pass to the next round. Harrington, from Ireland, is positioned in the same section of the bracket as Beatriz Ferreira from Brazil, the Pan American Games titleholder who she defeated in the final of the Tokyo Olympics.
In another location, welterweight boxer Busenaz Surmeneli, who won Turkey's first-ever boxing gold in Tokyo, may face off against world championships silver medalist Imane Khelif of Algeria in the semifinals.
Two boxers were taken out of a draw: Fikremariam Yadesa Leta of Ethiopia was unable to provide the necessary paperwork. Tugrulhan Erdemir from Turkiye was substituted with German Magomed Schachidov after the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed a temporary ban for doping.
