Boxing at the Summer Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo

Andy Cruz (CUB) vs. Wanderson Oliveira (BRA), men's 60 kg quarterfinal #3.

 

How the hell could a judge have it 2-0 to the Brazilian….aaaah boxing

 

Wait so Lázaro Álvarez lost?! That's kind of a big upset. They've met a couple of times before and Batyrgaziev has always lost. Don't get me wrong, Batyrgaziev is a solid amateur but Álvarez was the #1 seed.

 

Alvarez was the #3 seed. #1 seed was Mirazizbek from Uzbekistan, the overwhelming favorite before the tournament started (lost to Walker).

Alvarez was only a slight favorite to Batyrgaziev in the betting market too (~55/45).

 

Official cards:

30-27 x3
29-28
28-29

UD for Cruz

Him versus Bachkov would be a lovely boxer vs. swarmer match-up. They've met once before, Cruz winning four years ago. Should it wind up being Keyshawn Davis, well, Cruz has beaten him thrice as well, in all their encounters.

 

Andy Cruz wins 4-1. Decent fight. Wanderson was the toughest matchup he had in the bottom half imo. Safiullin/Garside in the Semis should be a dominant W for him. Keyshawn/Bachkov in the F will be a hell of a task tho. Both looking fantastic so far.

 

Zakir Safiullin (KAZ) vs. Harry Garside (AUS), men's 60kg quarterfinal #4.

 

Safiullin really has no busines allowing Garside to be all that competitive here. Massive gulf in experience between them with an extra half-decade and thrice as many bouts fought, not to mention - whose boxing reputation (and strength of national amateur program) do we rate higher, Kazakhstan's or ...Australia's?

 

Ah, right, so he was, I'd completely forgotten about Mirzakhalilov.

Álvarez has got to be sick of the color bronze. This is his third Olympics having to settle for third place...but he'll only be 33 for Paris in 2024, so he will probably get at least one more chance for silver or gold.

 

Don’t really get this scoring…seemed like the Kazakh landed 3/4 big rights and a lot of body shots in the last vs nothing much from the Aussie, Aussie gets it based on…?

 

First two rounds were close but Zakir might've put a bow on it with that frenetic shoeshining on Harry's stomach. You love to see it, all on the line so he bites down on his gumshield and puts in 3 mintues of solid body work.


...but wow, the Aussie gets it via SD! 29-28 x3, 28-29 x2, Garside advances.

 

Semifinals are set, then. Davis vs. Bachkov and Cruz vs. Garside to meet, with a silver medal consolation prize for the losers.

 

Based on winning his share of the first 8 minutes. The Kazakh won the last minute but it wasn't enough.

Could have gone either way. Glad it went ours.

 

No chance he won that last round for me *shrug*

 

Abner Teixeira (BRA) vs. Julio César La Cruz (CUB), men's 91kg semifinal #2.