Cuba’s Paris 2024 gold medallist Erislandy Alvarez made an impressive first appearance in the World Boxing Championships 2025 today on another day of top-class action that featured 64 bouts across six men and women’s weight classes.
Alvarez was never troubled as he cruised to a comfortable 5-0 victory over Oier Ibarreche Conde of Spain without losing a round on any of the five judges’ scorecards and will meet Orozbekov Almaz of Kyrgyzstan in the round of 16 on Tuesday evening.
His victory provided a boost to a Cuban team that has endured an uncharacteristically difficult start to the competition with five of their eight boxers having exited the competition.
The early session on day four saw the men’s light heavyweight (M80kg) competition ramp-up with 16 bouts in the round of 32.
The majority went to form as seven of the top eight seeds progressed to the next round however Bulgaria’s William Cholov sprung a surprise when he defeated Japan’s number five seed Go Wakaya. The see-saw contest was in the balance after two rounds, but a strong final round from the Bulgarian saw him win it 10-9 on all of the judges’ score cards to secure a unanimous 5-0 victory.
He will meet Aminiasi Saratibau of Fiji in the last 16 who progressed after his opponent Taj Essoghene Kagho of New Zealand was disqualified in the third round following repeated warnings from the referee.
It was followed by a classic contest between long term rivals USA and Cuba which saw America’s Bobby Gonzales secure a 3-2 split decision victory over Jorge Manuel Soto Napoles. The fight could have gone either way but an assertive round three from Gonzales, saw him get the nod from four judges to secure the narrowest of victories and set-up a last 16 clash with Croatia’s number four seed, Gabrijel Veocic.
Earlier in the session, the round of 32 in the men’s bantamweight session went to form as all eight seeds won.
The number one seed and Paris 2024 bronze medallist, Junior Alcantara Reyes of the Dominican Republic overcame a potentially tricky challenge from Tokyo 2020 flyweight silver medallist, Carlo Paalam of the Philippines, to move into the last eight where he will face Omid Ahmadisafa who is representing the Boxing Refugee Team.
Ahmadisafa, who is based in Germany, became the second member of Refugee team to win as he eased past Mohammed Almuwallad of Saudi Arabia to set-up a medal bout against the number one seed.
The evening session opened with eight bouts in the women’s featherweight (W57kg) division which has the potential to be one of the most exciting categories in the Championships and featured a number of boxers with impressive CVs.
In the first bout of the evening, Poland’s Paris silver medallist Julia Szeremeta showed why she is the number one seed in the weight class with a unanimous victory over Yan Cai of China.
Although she did not have it all her own way in round one, Szeremeta upped her game in the second and third and her constant switching between orthodox and southpaw frequently bamboozled her opponent and enabled the Pole to repeatedly cuff Cai with a series of left and right hands. She will meet Khazakhstan’s Karina Ibragimova in the quarter finals.
On her switching style, Szeremeta said: “It helps me to be able to change my stance, even though I didn’t utilize it much in today’s match, it certainly does hinder my opponents when I do this. They don’t know how I will attack. The battle played out just as I imagined, I was in full control, having fun with boxing like I always do, fighting from afar.”
One of the most highly anticipated fights of the evening saw two of this year’s World Boxing Cup winners, Jasmaine Jasmaine of India take on Brazilian number three seed, Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu.
The clash of styles, with both fighters preferring to counter punch, meant the contest never caught fire. In the end, Jasmaine, used her height and reach advantage to pick off her opponent as she secured a unanimous 5-0 victory and a place in the quarter-final against Uzbekistan’s Khumorabonu Mamajonova.
Speaking in the mixed zone after her bout, Jasmaine said: “In this fight we both focused on counter punches so my strategy was to use long punches whether I was going backwards or forwards.”
The evening session finished with 16 men’s welterweight (M65kg) contests across two rings.
Alvarez’s slick victory was the standout performance as once again the more established names dominated with seven of the top eight seeds progressing to the next round at welterweight.
In between the women’s featherweight and the men’s welterweight contests, the round of 16 in the women’s light-middleweight (W70kg) stuck to the form book with three of the four top seeds progressing.
The only one that failed to make it through was Polish number three seed, Barbara Marcinkowska, who lost on a 3-2 split to Chantelle Reid of England. Reid will box China’s Mengge Zhang for a guaranteed bronze medal in Wednesday’s quarter finals.
Tomorrow sees 64 bouts take place across the afternoon (12:00 GMT) and evening sessions (18:00 GMT).
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
World Boxing will be posting updates throughout the competition on its social media channels: