BRAZIL’s Rebeca De Lima Santos became the first boxer to secure a place in the final of the World Boxing Championships when she defeated Viktoriya Grafeyeva of Kazakhstan in their lightweight (W60kg) semi-final.
She will meet Aneta Rygielska in the final after the Pole defeated Chengyu Yang of China on a razor thin 3-2 split after a fantastic contest which concluded the afternoon session of boxing at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.
Speaking in the mixed zone after her victory, De Lima Santos said: “I feel amazing. This is where I planned to be, what I was working for. And as I said to you, I’m coming for the gold.
“It was all planned, I had a conversation with my team. We prepared for this. We’ve been through a lot this year. I had a rough beginning, this year I lost at home at the World Boxing Cup Foz Do Iguacu, and I put in my mind that I was never going to let it happen again. And since then, I’ve been working a lot. And I deserve this, and I deserve my gold.
“I don’t think I changed my boxing, but I changed my mentality and what I’m doing with my boxing, I changed my mentality to get 100% off my boxing. Don’t let anybody out boxing me. So, this is happening and I’m happy with my progress.”
The Brazilian’s victory was followed by 14 more semi-finals in the evening session which began with a bout of contrasting styles as Columbia’s Valeria Arboleda Mendoza took on Paris 2024 silver medallist, Julia Szeremeta of Poland at featherweight (W57kg).
Although the Polish number one seed deployed her skilful footwork and persistent switching to try and confuse her opponent, she did not have it all her own way but did enough to win on a split decision. She will meet India’s Jaismine Jaismine in the final on Saturday night.
The first welterweight (W65kg) semi saw a terrific tussle between Ireland’s Grainne Walsh and Aida Abiikeyeva with both boxers repeatedly landing over three hard fought rounds. In the end, the judges felt the Kazakh did the better work and handed her a victory that was much closer than the unanimous scoreline might suggest. Abikeyeva will meet Navbakhor Khamidova of Uzbekistan in Sunday’s final.
In the women’s heavyweight (80kg+), one seed, Nupur Nupur of India, advanced to the finals via a comfortable 5:0 decision against Türkiye’s Seyma Duztas. It wasn’t to be for the second seed, Kazakhstan’s Yeldana Talipova, however, who suffered a defeat to Poland’s Agata Kaczmarska. It was the third win on a successful for day for the nation.
The men’s lightweight competition gave the crowd another opportunity to see Paris 2024 gold medallist, Abdumalik Khalokov of Uzbekistan, who is yet to lose a round in Liverpool.
However, it was cut short in round two when the referee stopped the contest after an accidental clash of heads with his opponent Shunsuke Kitamoto of Japan. The bout went to the cards where Khalokov was leading with five judges to secure another unanimous victory.
He will meet Brazil’s Luis Oliveira in what promises to be a mouthwatering final on Sunday night.
At middleweight it was the battle of the southpaws as number one seed and Paris Olympian Rami Kiwan of Bulgaria clashed with local favourite, Callum Makin.
Round one saw Kiwan use his long reach to try and take control with the jab, while Makin frequently countered by doubling up his own jab. A point deduction for Makin in round two saw the Bulgarian take the upper hand and he saw the fight out in the third to secure a unanimous victory and set-up a final with Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Erkinboev.
Two upsets followed at men’s heavyweight with the favourite, Loren Berto Alfonso Domingues of Azerbaijan, falling short to Brazil’s Isaias Santos Ribeiro Filho in a thrilling bout. The Brazilian unanimously won the first round before narrowly losing the next two rounds while doing just enough to maintain a 3:2 win.
Filho will meet Uzbekistan’s Turabek Khabibullaev in the final, who defeated the number two seed, Enmanuel Reyes Pla of Spain, with a 4:1 decision.
The super heavyweights once again delivered exciting action to bring the day to a close. Uzbekistan’s Jakhongir Zokirov put on a clinic to beat China’s Danabieke Bayikewuzi in a unanimous decision. There were multiple counts for Bayikewuzi who performed admirably in the face of a dominant performance from the 22-year-old Uzbek.
Zokirov will face Kazakhstan’s Aibek Oralbay who won a fascinating session finale fight against Cuba’s iconic Julio Cesar La Cruz. The first round had Oralbay ahead by one, before he unanimously took the second leaving too much work for Cuba’s star to do in the third. La Cruz did his best, even earning a count from the referee on his opponent and taking the final round, but the points didn’t swing back enough meaning the two-time Olympic gold medallist departs the competition with a bronze medal.
Earlier in the day, the quarter finals were brought to a close with 12 quarter finals in the women’s light-flyweight (W48kg) competition and the men’s bantamweight (55kg) and cruiserweight (M85kg) divisions.
The light-flyweight competition saw the first and third seeds, Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan and India’s Minakshi Minakshi progress to the semis whilst the second and fourth seeds, Hikaru Shinohara of Japan and Italy’s crashed out of the competition.
At bantamweight, Cuba’s number one seed, Alejando Claro Fiz started slowly and had to fight of a spirited performance by Turkey’s Samet Gamus to scrape into the next round 3-2,
It was the same for number three seed, Soushi Makino of Japan who did just enough to edge out Uzbekistan’s Shodiyorjon Melikuziev in one of the best bouts of the session on the narrowest of splits.
At cruiserweight, Teagn Stott impressed with a second round stoppage of Bulgaria’s Semion Boldirev to secure the home nation’s fifth medal of Championships.
Stott started strongly using his sharp jab to good effect and inflicted a standing count on his opponent in the first. He delivered two more standing counts in round two before the referee decided he had seen enough and called the contest off. Stott will face Ukraine’s Danylo Zhasan in the semi-finals.
Tomorrow’s two sessions will see 24 more semi-finals and the first three finals of the competition in the women’s featherweight and heavyweight categories and the men’s middleweight division.
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: