Home nation Brazil is top of the medal count table after the completion of the quarter finals at the ‘World Boxing Cup – Brazil 2026, Foz Do Iguaça’ which saw an action packed day of 55 medal bouts at the Rafain Palace Hotel & Convention Centre.
Brazil were the big winners on the day and are guaranteed to finish with nine medals after victories for Rebeca Santos (W54kg), Luis Oliviera (M60kg), Kaue Belini (M85kg), Yuri Falcao (M65kg), Thauan Silva (M75kg), Kaian Reis (M70kg) and Wanderley Pereira (M80kg) added to the two wins in the previous day’s quarter finals for Barbara Santos (W75kg) and Isaias Filho (M90kg).
The next best performing nations are Kazakhstan and China, which are both guaranteed five medals at the tournament.
The standout performances for Kazakhstan came from its women with three unanimous 5:0 wins for Viktoriya Grafeyva (W60kg), Aida Abikeyeva (W65kg) and Alua Balkibekova (W51kg). In the men’s weights, Sultanbek Aibaruly progressed at cruiserweight (M85kg) and Dias Molzhigitov, edged a narrow 3-2 split against England’s Dimeji Shittu at light-heavyweight.
For China the performance of the day came in the women’s middleweight category (W75kg) where world number four Liu Yang secured a narrow 3:2 split decision victory over Turkiye’s 2020 Olympic Champion, Busenaz Surmeneli.
Other Chinese winners on the day included unanimous victories for Yu Tian (W60kg) and JiamaoZhang (M55kg), whilst Xinyu Qi edged a 4:1 split against Yasmine Mouttaki of Morocco at flyweight (W51kg).
It has set-up a fantastic day of semi-final action that will take place on Saturday 25 April 2026 with a number of mouthwatering clashes, featuring many the leading boxers from the recently updated World Boxing Rankings.
The women’s lightweight (W60kg) division features two potential classics that will see Aneta Rygielska of Poland go up against Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Grafeyeva in a battle between boxers ranked two and three in the world respectively. The winner will meet either Brazil’s world champion, Rebeca Santos, or China’s Yu Tian who will battle it out in the other half the draw.
The female middleweight (W75kg) category is also sure to be fiercely contested with one semi-final featuring a clash between Norway’s Sunniva Hofstad, who won three World Boxing Cup gold medals in 2025, and Australia’s Emma Sue Greentree who secured a bronze at the 2025 World Boxing Championships. The other side of the draw will see number one seed, Busra Isildar of Turkiye face home nation favourite, Barbara Santos.
In the men’s weights, the heavyweight category (M90kg) will see a clash between boxers ranked four and six in the world when Emrah Yasar of Turkiye and Spain’s Enmanuel Reyes Pla face off. They will meet either Isaias Filho of Brazil or Italy’s Dean Nwokedi Chime from the other semi-final.
At super-heavyweight (M90kg+), the 2025 World Boxing Championship silver medallist from Uzbekistan, Jakhongir Zokirov, will face Armenia’s Davit Chaloyan in one semi. Ahammad Abdullayev of Azerbaijan and Norway’s Omar Shiha will box for the right to meet them in the other.
The draw, schedule, and all of today’s results are available HERE.
Tomorrow’s sessions will start at 15:00 and 21:00 local time. All of the action from every day of competition will be livestreamed on the Confederação Brasileira de Boxe YouTube channel, available HERE.
World Boxing will be posting updates throughout the competition on its social media channels:
• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/officialworldboxing/
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