Boxing > Day by Day Recap

China's Zou Shiming fulfilled expectations and Zhang Xiaoping surpassed them. Both brough home gold medals for China - the country's first-ever boxing golds. Cuba failed to win a single gold medal, athough its fighters won an impressive eight medals overall.

Vasyl Lomachenko stopped France's Khedafi Djelkhir in the first round to capture his first Olympic title, while Russian heavyweight Rakhim Chakhkiev and British middleweight James Degale also won gold as the boxing tournament crowned its first five Olympic champions.

Vasyl Lomachenko continued his dominance as the final American fighter fell. Lomachenko dispatched Turkey's Yakup Kilic, 10-1, to earn a chance at gold, while U.S. heavyweight Deontay Wilder lost to Italy's Clemente Russo, 7-1. Wilder's bronze was the only U.S. boxing medal in Beijing - the worst Olympic performance in Team USA's history.

Great Britain's James Degale beat former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan to clinch Britain's third boxing medal in Beijing, while Vijender Kumar of India won the evening's final bout to earn the first boxing medal in India's history.

China secured four Olympic medals - quadrupling its previous total - when Zou Shiming and Zhang Xiaoping advanced to join two teammates in the semifinals. In the night's final bout, Dzhakhon Kurbanov was disqualified for biting his opponent, Yerkebulan Shynaliyev. 

 

Mauritius clinched its first-ever boxing medal when Bruno Julie advanced to the semifinals. Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko dominated another bout, as he dispatched China's Yang Li and continued assembling an astonishing Olympic performance.

U.S. heavyweight Deontay Wilder became the only American to advance to a medal round, despite being the most inexperienced member of the team. Two more world champions fell - the seventh and eighth of the tournament - including welterweight Demetrius Andrade (USA).

Reigning middleweight champion Matvey Korobov (RUS) lost on a day of dramatic bouts. China's gold-medal hopeful Zou Shiming barely escaped his match against France's Nordine Oubaali, while two more U.S. boxers were eliminated.

Close fights and narrow decisions produced a wealth of righteous indignation at Workers' Gymnasium, where a Russian world champion and a serious American medal contender both felt profoundly wronged by subjective calls.

 

Two more Russians fell in an early round, slicing the heralded team's number of boxers to just six. Meanwhile, U.S. boxer and reigning world champion Demetrius Andrade won his second bout and China quietly advanced two boxers of its own.

U.S. boxers Deontay Wilder and Luis Yanez refused to be daunted by the blows to Team USA. Both won their bouts, as did China's gold-medal hope, Zou Shiming.

A reeling U.S. team suffered its most serious blow when world champion Rau'shee Warren fell in his first bout. Warren was the first U.S. boxer to compete in consecutive Olympics since 1976 and considered one of their strongest medal hopes.

The first reigning world champion fell on boxing's third day of competition, when Vasyl Lomachenko (UKR) upset Albert Selimov (RUS). Both U.S. boxers lost - another trend that would continue throughout the Games.

One U.S. boxer advanced, and another was eliminated as Team USA tried to recover from the stunning collapse of bantamweight (54kg/119 lbs) Gary Russell, jr. in his room, dehydrated from a failed attempt to make weight.

In what would NOT be a harbinger of things to come, the Americans and Russians started their Olympic boxing tournament off strongly, with wins by Matvey Korobov (RUS) and Shawn Estrada (USA).