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Day seven of boxing in the 2012 Olympics continues this afternoon at 3:30 EDT in London, with flyweights and welterweights back in the ring, finalizing the quarterfinal matchups in each division.
[ 8/3 Morning Results: Flyweight / Welterweight ]
[ London 2012 - Round of 32 Boxing Recap ]
CNBC won't be live again until Saturday, but will have delayed coverage at 5 p.m. EDT. Or you can watch almost-live at NBCOlympics.com.
Top three fights/reasons to watch this morning:
1. TIE - (Flyweight) Nordine Oubaali (France) vs Rau'Shee Warren (United States) and (Welterweight) Errol Spence (United States) vs Krishan Vikas (India): I'm going with a tie here so I don't take up two of three spots with my USA! USA! USA! stuff. Team USA has lost seven in a row after a 4-0 start, and are down to just two men remaining in the hunt: Flyweight Rau'Shee Warren, who had a first-round by and was Team USA's only seeded fighter, and welterweight Errol Spence, who is the last American to win a bout, when he defeated Myke Carvalho of Brazil, 16-10, on Sunday. The team needs these wins. The flaws of the still desperately rebuilding American program have been exposed. Curiously, for the four years between Olympics, American boxing fans seemed to routinely accept the fact that the USA boxing program had a long, hard climb. Now that everyone's losing in the preliminary rounds, some seem to be surprised by the shortcomings in London.
I guess when it's not in front of you, it's easy to dismiss the program. But when they get your blood pumping, it's even easier to get caught up. Really, we've just seen a lot of fighters who just got outclassed by better opponents, except for Terrell Gausha, who had a real argument against Vijender Singh of India yesterday, and Michael Hunter, whose fight with Artur Beterbiev of Russia was so bad that I have a hard time complaining about his countback loss. A lot of this also hinges on something very simple: The Americans did not get easy draws. There are fighters continuing at bantamweight who are not as good as Joseph Diaz Jr, and fighters at lightweight continuing who probably aren't as good as Jose Ramirez. And neither Warren nor Spence has an easy fight today. Dem's da breaks. Plus the program is still a scattered mess in a lot of ways. This team has a lot more heart than the '08 team did, and I frankly just plain like them more, but there are still incredible internal issues with USA Boxing. All that said, USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
2. (Flyweight) Chatchai Butdee (Thailand) vs Robeisy Ramirez (Cuba): This could be phenomenal. Both were excellent in the opening round, with Ramirez smoking Japan's Katsuaki Susa (19-7), and Butdee a mountain of offense against Selcuk Eker of Turkey (24-10).
3. (Flyweight) Ilyas Suleimenov (Kazakhstan) vs Andrew Selby (Great Britain): I have about equal interest in all the rest of the fights, so I'm going with the homer, who has a shot at gold for Great Britain. Plus, if Selby and Warren can win two fights, they'll be meeting for the chance to fight for gold. And that would be fantastic.
Full schedule is after the jump.
Flyweight (114 lbs/52kg)
3:30 p.m. - Nordine Oubaali (France) vs Rau'Shee Warren (United States)
3:45 p.m. - Michael Conlan (Ireland) vs Duke Micah (Ghana)
4:00 p.m. - Chatchai Butdee (Thailand) vs Robeisy Ramirez (Cuba)
4:15 p.m. - Ilyas Suleimenov (Kazakhstan) vs Andrew Selby (Great Britain)
Welterweight (152 lbs/69 kg)
4:30 p.m. - Errol Spence (United States) vs Krishan Vikas (India)
4:45 p.m. - Adam Nolan (Ireland) vs Andrey Zamkovoy (Russia)
5:00 p.m. - Siphiwe Lusizi (South Africa) vs Gabriel Maestre (Venezuela)
5:15 p.m. - Yasuhiro Suzuki (Japan) vs Serik Sapiyev (Kazakhstan)