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Team Refugee boxer delivers suprise victory over European Championship silver medallist on day one of ‘World Boxing Cup: Cologne 2023’

October 29, 2023

Omid Ahmadisafa from the IOC’s Refugee Team delivered a surprise on day one of the ‘World Boxing Cup: Cologne 2023’ (28–31 October 2023)  when he outpointed England’s European Championship silver medallist, Kiaran MacDonald, in their flyweight (51kg) contest.

It was part of an exciting first day of action at the tournament which saw 52 boxers take part in 26 bouts. 

One country which enjoyed a very good start to the competition was Wales, which saw two of it’s strongest boxers come through tricky first round contests.

In the men’s light-middleweight competiton, 2022 European Championship silver medallist, Garan Croft, overcame Sweden’s Kevin Scott via a 4-1 split.

At 66kg in the women’s categories, Rosie Eccles, who secured qualification for Paris 2024 at this summer’s European Games in Poland, continued her good form with a unanimous win over Emilie Sonvico of France.

Elsewhere, this competition is notable for the presence of a team from Cuba which includes three women who have only recently been permitted to compete.

The Cuban line-up in Cologne features a number of young talents who experienced a mixed first day of action. 

In the women’s competition, Melani Girado (54kg) and Juliannet Diaz (60kg) lost by split decisions to Germany’s Zeina Nassar and Anna Jenni of Switzerland respectively.  In the men’s weights Rolando Martinez Perez (57kg), Erislandy Alvarez (63.5kg) and Jorge Soto Napoles (80kg) enjoyed victories but these were offset by losses at bantamweight (54kg) and super-heavyweight (92kg+).

Day two of the competition will see another 33 contests across weight classes including the women’s 50kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg and 75kg and the 57kg, 63.5kg, 71kg and 80kg categories for men.

All of the results from day one and the draw for day two can be viewed at:

Colo­gne Boxing Cup: Ablauf, Anset­zun­gen und Ergeb­nis­se des Turniers

All of the action from today’s second day of competition can be viewed at

  • https://sportdeutschland.tv/dbvboxen/cologne-boxing-cup-3-4-session-ring-a 
  • https://sportdeutschland.tv/dbvboxen/cologne-boxing-cup-3-4-session-ring-b

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

  • https://www.instagram.com/officialworldboxing/
  • https://twitter.com/RealWorldBoxing
  • https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing

The ‘World Boxing BoxingCup: Cologne 2023’ is being delivered by the German Boxing Association in collaboration with World Boxing.

The 15 nations taking part in the competition include 11 countries that are members of World Boxing: Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Mongolia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Wales.  Three countries that are not currently members of the new IF, Cuba, France and Switzerland, have been given approval to compete by the Executive Board of World Boxing.  The final entrant is representing the Refugee team.

Filed Under: 2023, World Boxing Cup

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