Sixty-four boxers from twenty-seven countries secured a guaranteed medal in a dramatic day of quarter-final action at the World Boxing Championships 2025 in Liverpool.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were comfortably the two most successful nations on the day with seven and eight wins respectively, while the two nations met five times themselves. In their head-to-head fights, it was Uzbekistan who came out on top with four wins to one.
The most eye-catching results of the day came among those duels, when Paris 2024 silver medallist, Nurbek Oralbay, was comprehensively defeated 5-0 by Javokhir Ummataliev in the men’s light-heavyweight (M80kg).
The early session opened with a series of female contests and delivered an immediate surprise at bantamweight (W54kg) where the Paris silver medallist, Hatice Akbas was comprehensively outpointed by Italy’s Sirine Charaabi.
The Italian shocked the number one seed with a fast start and though the Turkish number one seed fought back in the third, it was not enough to prevent Charaabi taking the bout and a place in Saturday’s semi-final, where she will meet Yoseline Perez of the USA.
The lightweight (W60kg) category went largely to form with victories for Rebeca Santos of Brazil, Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Grafeyeva, Chengyu Yang of China and Poland’s Aneta Rygielska.
However, there were surprises in store at middleweight (75kg) as Brazilian third seed Viviane Pereira lost to Lina Wang of China and Norway’s highly rated number two seed Sunniva Hofstad went out on a 4-1 split to Ireland’s Aoife O’Rourke.
The women’s bouts in the early session concluded with victories for India’s Nupur Nupur, Yilian Zhan from China, Yeldana Talipova of Kazakhstan and Turkey’s Seyma Duztas, who went through in style with a first round stoppage of Saudi Arabia’s Noof Alyousef.
The bantamweight contest (M54kg) opened with surprise defeat for the Dominican Republic’s number one seed, Junior Alcantara Reyes who was undone by a terrific final round by Liu Chuang that enabled the Chinese boxer to edge the contest 3-2 and set-up a semi-final with Sabyrkhan Makhmud of Kazakhstan.
Next up was hometown favourite Odel Kamara who was facing Mongolia’s Byamba-Erdene Otgonbaatar at light-middleweight (M70kg). Backed by a noisy home crowd, the English number two seed did not have it all his own way however his fast hands and speed on the counter provided decisive as he secured another unanimous victory. He will meet Torekhan Sabyrkhan in Saturday’s semi-final.
The early session concluded with four heavyweight bouts which saw wins for Loren Berto Alfonso Domingues of Azerbaijan, Brazil’s Isaias Filho, Turaek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan and Spain’s Emmanuel Reyes Pla who all go into Friday’s semi-finals.
A further thirty-two quarter finals were fought in the evening session, opening with the women’s flyweight (51kg) and closed out by the men’s superheavyweights (90kg+). The latter witnessed a shock result as the weight’s top seed, Italy’s Diego Lenzi, suffered a defeat to China’s Danabieke Bayikewuzi with the Italian receiving two deductions for warnings from the referee.
Cuba’s four-time Olympian, Julio Cesar La Cruz, narrowly avoided the same fate having lost the first round to England’s Damar Thomas, but using his experience to claw back and win via split decision. La Cruz will face Aibek Oralbay in the semi final while Bayikewuzi takes on Jakhongir Zokirov for a place in the gold medal match.
Earlier in the evening Turkiye’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu, the top seed in the women’s flyweight, kicked things off with a confident unanimous decision victory against India’s Zareen Nikhat. The only other remaining seed in the category, Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan, also delivered a clinical win against Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Xuan Guo.
Speaking after the fight, Cakiroglu said: “This match was indeed like a final since Zareen is not only a good boxer but also possesses a wealth of experience. We encountered him in the quarter finals today. Ideally, we would have faced each other in the finals, but instead, we are here.
“It was a lovely and tough match. Even with the warning, it was a great match. I hope the semi-finals and finals will be equally enjoyable. I just want to return home as a champion.”
Julia Szeremeta, the favourite in women’s featherweight (57kg), followed suit with a victory but was made to work for it by Kazakhstan’s Karina Ibragimova. Ibragimova impressed in the first round to secure a lead, before Poland’s Olympic silver medallist fought back in the following rounds to win via a 3:2 decision.
The women’s welterweight (65kg )was headlined by a bout between category the favourite Liu Yang, from China, and Ireland’s Grainne Walsh. The intense affair went down to the wire with Walsh ultimately earning a 3:2 result.
Speaking on her mentality during these World Boxing Championships, Walsh said: “I know that the quality of opposition here is just unreal. We came from the camp in Sheffield where I’ve been inspired by all these people. I’d like to share in the ring with all of them. But like I said, everyone is beatable.”
“Someone said to me yesterday, two arms, two legs, who shows up on the day is the one that walks away with the glory. I’m glad to be on the podium now, but it’s definitely not over yet.”
The remaining categories largely went to form with Uzbekistan’s Abdumalik Khalokov and Brazil’s Luiz Oliveira both winning convincingly in the men’s lightweight (60kg). Japan’s Shunsuke Kitamoto and Bulgaria’s Radoslav Rosenov were the other winners in the category.
The same can be said in the men’s welterweight (65kg) with all four seeds in the category booking their place in the semis. Cuba’s Olympic gold medallist, Erislandey Alvarez, is joined by Brazil’s Yuri Falcao Dos Reis, Georgia’s Lasha Guruli and Uzbekistan’s Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev.
Capping off the action, the men’s middleweight (75kg) saw another hometown win with Callum Makin beating Joshua Ofori of Canada, which sets up the local for a semi final bout versus weight favourite Rami Kiwan.
Tomorrow is a rest day and the action will return on Friday 12 September 2025 with a single ring in the M&S Bank Arena. It will feature quarter finals at light-flyweight (W48kg) and cruiserweight (M85kg) followed by semi-finals in four men’s and four women’s categories.
RESULTS:
All of today’s results are available at: https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/competition-documents.
INFORMATION:
The daily schedule, official draw and all results and additional information can be found on the event’s official website: https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/competition-documents.
WATCH:
The World Boxing Championships 2025 is being livestreamed on World Boxing’s website via Eurovision Sport (available in selected territories) at https://worldboxing.org/watch-the-world-boxing-championships/.
LIVE SCORING:
Fans can stay up to date with all of the action in every session of boxing with live scoring at https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/live-schedule-results
PHOTOS:
A free photo gallery of images from every session is available. Images can be downloaded directly for free – https://www.flickr.com/photos/203447206@N02/albums
SOCIAL MEDIA:
World Boxing will be posting updates throughout the competition on its social media channels:
