NEWS

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/

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing

• X – https://x.com/RealWorldBoxing

Twelve women and four men have become the first boxers to guarantee themselves a medal on day four of the ‘World Boxing Cup – Brazil 2026, Foz Do Iguaça’.

On a day of 48 bouts, the second session featured 16 quarter finals, which saw boxers from Spain, Argentina, England, Serbia, Brazil, Australia, Uzbekistan, Mexico, China, Morocco, Turkiye and Norway guarantee themselves at least a bronze medal.

In the women’s light-flyweight (W48kg) competition, Uzbekistan’s number one seed Farzona Fozilova beat Wissal Fakhir of Morocco on a 4:1 split decision and will meet Spain’s Marta Lopez Del Arbol in the semi-final.  In the other half of the draw, Fatima Herrera of Mexico stopped Japan’s Yuka Sadamatsu to set-up a semi-final with the Argentinian number two seed Tatiana Flores.

The women’s bantamweight division saw a series of surprises as China’s Yunman Gan scored a 4:1 split decision victory over the USA’s World Boxing Championship bronze medallist, Yoseline Perez while Morocco’s Widad Bertal defeated Polish world number seven, Wiktoria Rogalinksa 3:0. 

Yunman Gan will meet England’s Lauren Mackie in her semi-final, after she defeated Canada’s Scarlett Delgado. Bertal will face Sara Cirkovic of Serbia in the other half of the draw following her 5:0 win over Ireland’s 2024 Olympian, Jennifer Lehane.

In the women’s middleweight (W75kg) division, Türkiye’s 2025 World Boxing Championship silver medallist, Busra Isildar, showed her pedigree with a commanding victory over Uruguay’s Marvelis Yriza to guarantee a bronze medal and set-up a semi-final with home favourite Barbara Santos who outpointed Italy’s Melissa Gemini.

In the other half of the draw, Norway’s Sunniva Hofstad maintained her great record in World Boxing Cups to guarantee at least a bronze, with a unanimous win over China’s Yashu Zhu. She will meet the world bronze medallist Emma Sue Greentree in the semi-final after the Australina narrowly outpointed (3:2) Poland’s 2025 World Boxing Champion at heavyweight (W80kg+), Agata Kaczsmarska, who has recently move down to middleweight.

The men’s heavyweight division (M90kg) saw three 5:0 unanimous victories for World Boxing silver medallist Isaias Filho of Brazil, Spain’s Enmanual Reyes Pla and Emrah Yasar of Turkiye. The other quarter final saw Italy’s Dean Nwokedi Chime progress to the next round via a walkover after England’s Teagn Stott pulled out of the competition. The Italian will face Filho in his semi-final, while Yasar and Reyes Pla battle it out in the other half of the draw.

Elsewhere, the schedule saw the round of 16 come to a close in the women’s flyweight (W51kg) and welterweight (W65kg) divisions and the men’s bantamweight (M55kg) and welterweight (M65kg) classes.

The action saw Kazakhstan’s world number one and two progress through to the next round in the women’s classes as Alua Balkibekova (W51kg) defeated Bulgaria’s Zlatislava Chuckanova and Aida Abikeyeva (W65kg) secured a unanimous win over Viktorie Jilkova of Czechia. 

The draw, schedule, and all of today’s results are available HERE. 

Tomorrow will see 110 boxers compete to guarantee a medal in 55 quarter final bouts. The first session will feature action in the women’s flyweight (W51kg) and welterweight (W65kg) categories. The men will face off at flyweight (M50kg), welterweight (M65kg), middleweight (M75kg), light-heavyweight (M80kg) and super-heavyweight (M90kg+).

In the evening session the women will compete at featherweight (W57kg), lightweight (W60kg) and light-middleweight (W70kg) while the men box for a medal in the bantamweight (M55kg), lightweight (M60kg) and light-middleweight (M70kg) divisions. There will be three quarter-finals at cruiserweight (M85kg) where there are seven entries.

The 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/

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing

• X – https://x.com/RealWorldBoxing

Day three of the ‘World Boxing Cup – Brazil 2026, Foz Do Iguaça’ saw the hosts and China take centre stage as both finished with five wins each.

On a day which saw 52 more bouts across the men and women’s weight classes, the home nation showcased its strength in depth, as two boxers that won medals at last year’s World Boxing Championships entered the tournament

At lightweight division (M60kg) world silver medallist, Luis Oliviera (M60kg) secured a routine unanimous victory over Uruguay’s Luca Fernadez, while in the women’s category (W60kg) world champion, Rebeca Santos, had to work much harder to edge a 3:2 win over Gizem Ozer of Turkey.

Other Brazilian winners included middleweight (M75kg) Thauan Silva, light-heavyweight (M80kg) Wanderley Pereira and light-middleweight, Vivianne Pereira who defeated Australia’s, World Boxing Championship silver medallist, Lekeisha Pergoloti in the women’s light-middleweight (W70kg) category.

It was one of two big surprises in the women’s light-middleweight division, which also saw the reigning world champion, Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan, lose 4:0 to Türkiye’s Busenaz Surmeneli, who has moved-up from the W65kg category, where she was ranked number four in the world.

Not to be outdone by the hosts, China equalled Brazil’s achievement of five wins on the day with victories for bantamweight (W54kg) Yunma Gan, lightweight (W60kg) Yu Tian and light-middleweight (W70kg) Liu Yang in the women’s competition, and lightweight Jiabao Yuan (M60kg) and light-heavyweight (M80kg) Hao Ran Do in the men’s weights.

The draw, schedule, and all of today’s results are available HERE. 

The action continues tomorrow with 48 bouts across two sessions and includes 16 quarter finals in the evening session at light-flyweight (W48kg), bantamweight (W54kg), middleweight (W75kg) for women and heavyweight (M90kg) for men.

The 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/
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing
• X – https://x.com/RealWorldBoxing
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-boxing

A busy second day of action at the ‘World Boxing Cup – Brazil 2026, Foz Do Iguaça’ saw 58 bouts take place across the men and women’s competitions and featured a number of shocks with high ranking boxers exiting the competition in the preliminary rounds.

The USA was the most successful nation on-the-day with four victories, followed closely by Armenia and the Dominican Republic who followed-up their strong performances on day one, with three more wins each.

The first session saw the women take centre stage with bouts at light-flyweight (48kg), flyweight (W51kg) and featherweight (W57kg) and delivered an early shock when the world number one Julia Szeremeta of Poland lost a 3:2 split decision to Kukhta Vladislava of Hungary in their featherweight contest.   

Vladislava will meet Japan’s Riko Yamada in the quarter-final, after she outpointed Tunisia’s Islem Ferchichi in their second round contest.

Elsewhere, the featherweight competition saw Ireland’s two-time Olympian, Michela Walsh, lose to Alyssa Mendoza of the USA, while the home nation favourite and competition’s second seed, Juci Cerqueira, overcame a scare to edge past Sthelyne Grosy of France on a 3:2 split.

The men’s weights featured more prominently in the evening session as the welterweight (M65kg) and super-heavyweight (M90kg+) contests got underway.

The welterweight division saw another seed exit the competition as English fourth seed Patris Mughalzai lost a 4:1 split to France’s Hugo Grau while at super-heavyweight Brazil’s Joel Ramos and Germany’s Nikita Putilov, who were seeded fourth and fifth respectively, both ended-up on the wrong side of split decisions in their first round bouts.

Other well-established super-heavyweights enjoyed more comfortable openers. Top seed JakhongirZokirov of Uzbekistan did not lose a round against Romania’s Florin Ionita and number two seed, Luka Pratliacic of Croatia scored a unanimous win over Longkai Zhao of China.

The draw, schedule, and all of today’s results are available HERE. 

All of the action from every day of competition will be livestreamed on the Confederação Brasileira de Boxe YouTube channel, available HERE.

Tomorrow’ sessions start at 15:00 and 21:00 local time.

World Boxing will be posting updates throughout the competition on its social media channels:

• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/officialworldboxing/

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing

• X – https://x.com/RealWorldBoxing

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-boxing

Almost 400 boxers from 50 National Federations, are registered to take part in ‘The World Boxing Cup – Brazil 2026, Foz do Iguaçu’ which gets underway next week, 20-26 April 2026.

It is the first event of the 2026 series and the largest number of entries ever into a World Boxing Cup competition.

The action will take place in the Rafain Palace Hotel & Convention Centre which hosted last year’s event when Uzbekistan topped the medal table and the home nation came third with two gold, two silver and a bronze.

For this year’s competition Brazil has registered 16-strong team of men and women which includes2025 World Boxing Champion Rebeca De Lima Santos (W60kg) as well as silver medallists Luiz Oliveira (M60kg), Yuri Falcao (M65kg) and Isaias Ribeiro (M90kg).

Other nations that have confirmed they are sending large delegations of more than 10 boxers to compete at the event include Belgium, China, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Spain, Tajikistan, Türkiye and USA.

Medals will be contested across 20 weight divisions, 10 for both men and women, with World Boxing ranking points up for grabs. Preliminary rounds will be fought across two rings transitioning to one ring for the semi-final and final bouts.

The official draw will take place at 18:30 (local time) on Sunday 19 April 2026 with action getting underway on Monday. There will be two sessions in the preliminary rounds, the afternoon session starting at 14:00 and the evening following at 18:00.

The entire competition will be livestreamed from Confederação Brasileira de Boxe YouTube channel, available HERE.

The draw, schedule, full results and additional information will be available HERE. 

World Boxing will be posting updates throughout the competition on its social media channels:

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/officialworldboxing/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing

X – https://x.com/RealWorldBoxing

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-boxing