Marley, Reyes, Alfonso and Machado are already in the quarter-finals in Paris

A longer competition day was held in the Paris Olympics where the heavyweight (92kg) delivered the main surprises.

United States’ Roscoe Hill claimed a silver medal at the World Boxing Championships in Belgrade and the experienced flyweight (51kg) boxer used his excellent technical skills to beat another veteran, the Boxing Refugee Team’s Omid Ahmadisafa.

There were 17 boxers at the men’s featherweight (57kg) and the two athletes who had to fight for the last 16 were Sweden’s Nebil Ibrahim and Palestine’s Wasim Abusal. The Swedish was more confident in all of the three rounds than his young Palestinian opponent and advanced to the best 16.

Bulgaria’s Radoslav Rosenov opened his campaign with a great success and his teammate, the 24-year-old Rami Kiwan continued his winning path. The European Champion had the perfect timing in the attacks against Poland’s experienced Damian Durkacz and he eliminated his two-time Olympian opponent.

Spain’s Tokyo Olympic quarter-finalist Emmanuel Reyes earned several medals in the main events but he started slowly against China’s Han Xuezhen in the Round of 16 at the men’s heavyweight (92kg). The Spaniard dominated the second and third rounds with his powerful jabs and he found the way to the quarter-finals of the weight class.

Loren Berto Alfonso switched from Cuba to Azerbaijan in 2019 and was not the favourite against Cuba’s two-time Olympic Champion Julio Cesar La Cruz. The Cuban heavyweight (92kg) veteran was focused to his third and historic Olympic title but Alfonso had the great finish to beat La Cruz in the bout of the day.

Germany’s Magomed Schachidov had difficulties in his opener against Mozambique’s Commonwealth Games silver medallist Tiago Muxanga and he had an early exit in Paris.

The men’s heavyweight (92kg) delivered several surprises but Ireland’s Jack Marley accomplished his minimum target and eliminated Poland’s Mateusz Bereznicki while Tajikistan’s Davlat Boltayev and Brazil’s Keno Machado also advanced to the last eight.