Boxing at the Summer Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo

You been asleep for the last half-decade?

They first did this in Rio in 2016.

I would imagine the rationale is clear as day: the games are supposed to be the best in the world competing to determine the supreme, to stand atop the podium. Other sports - by now all the popular team ones - have allowed pros to compete for a long time. Not sure I see the issue? Particularly with amateur boxing having ditched head gear and gone to a system of scoring more like the pros' in recent years. Besides, very few amateur boxers that make it through Olympic qualifiers do so without vast experience, so there's no real argument to be made about seasoned and dangerous full-grown men from the pro ranks beating up on poor defenselessly green teenagers or anything.

 

YUGE day of boxing tomorrow. Here are important start times:

1. Session 19 kicks off at 11am in Tokyo - which is 10pm EST, or a bit less than 7 hours from now - with a pair quarterfinals in men's flyweight (52kg). I haven't been following the division, both could be terrific bouts or stinkers, others would know better. Then, all this juiciness comes back-to-back-to-back:
2. 11:30 local/10:30pm EST (still technically Monday night) - Duke Ragan (USA) vs. Samuel Takyi (GHA), men's feather semifinal #1.
3. 11:48 local/10:48pm EST (still technically Monday night) - Keyshawn Davis (USA) vs. Gabil Mamedov (ROC), men's lightweight quarterfinal #1.
4. 12:03 local/11:03pm EST (still technically Monday night) - Hovhannes Bachkov (ARM) vs. Elnur Abduraimov (UZB), men's lightweight quarterfinal #2.
5. 12:18 local/11:18pm EST (still technically Monday night) - Muslim Gadzhimagomedov (ROC) vs. David Nyika (NZL), men's heavyweight semifinal #1.

(oh and Dubois' sister has a quarterfinal match with a Thai chick at 12:50 local/ten of midnight EST if anybody cares about that)

Then a little shuteye for us Yanks, but not too much, because Session 20 is off the goddamn chain. Don't miss those alarms!

1. Session 20 kicks off at 1700 local time, or 4am EST, with a pair of women's lightweight quarterfinals directly followed by men's flyweight quarterfinals #3 & 4.
2. 18:03 local/5:03am EST - Lázaro Álvarez (CUB) vs. Albert Batyrgaziev (ROC), men's feather semifinal #2.
3. 18:18 local/5:18am EST - Andy Cruz (CUB) vs. Wanderson Oliveira (BRA), men's lightweight quarterfinal #3.
4. 18:35 local/5:35am EST - Zakir Safiullin (KAZ) vs. Harry Garside (AUS), men's lightweight quarterfinal #4.
5. 18:50 local/5:50am EST - Abner Teixeira (BRA) vs. Julio César La Cruz (CUB), men's heavy semifinal #2.
6. 19:05 local/6:05am EST - Pat McCormack (GBR) vs. Roniel Iglesias (CUB), men's welter final.

I'd say you could get away with maybe snoozing until five thirty, but you should do yourselves a favor and make sure to catch both that 91kg SF and the day's main event, the 69kg finals!

 

Note: this will be the last "split" day, of dual sessions, coming up. Going forward the rest of the week, from Wednesday until Sunday there will be fewer and fewer bouts as we move toward crowning division champions in each men's and women's category, and these will all be condensed into single afternoon sessions (local time - very early morning for Americans).

 

Wow! I wonder how long odds would've been for Aidan Walsh if not for his injury giving McCormack a WO.