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The top half of the light heavyweight quarterfinal bracket is set, as eight fighters took the ring this morning in the round of 16. Here are the results.
We'll be back with the rest of the round of 16 at light flyweight, light welterweight, and light heavyweight this afternoon.
[ Morning Results: Light Flyweight / Light Welterweight ]
[ London 2012 - Round of 32 Boxing Recap ]
Light Heavyweight (178 lbs/81kg)
Julio la Cruz (Cuba) def. Ihab Almatbouli (Jordan), 25-8: Nobody else to this point in the division has been close to this performance. Still, la Cruz fell short of countryman Yosbany Veitia's high score in London, which is still 26. This was a dominant performance from the Cuban. Almatbouli knew he was outclassed pretty early. Post-fight was notably sportsmanlike.
Yamaguchi Falcao (Brazil) def. Fanlong Meng (China), 17-17, wins on countback: Very good fight, highly competitive. Both of these guys are quality and it showed. I don't think Falcao has much chance against the Cuban la Cruz, but who knows? He certainly won't be as overmatched as Almatbouli.
Elshod Rasulov (Uzbekistan) def. Yahia El Mekachari (Tunisia), 13-6: Not exactly the most inspiring fight either way. Rasulov looked solid, but fairly ordinary. El Mekachari looked like any number of guys who were out after the round of 32. You might recall that his favored first round opponent, Jakhon Qurbonov of Tajikistan, basically didn't show up.
Egor Mekhontcev (Russia) def. Damien Hooper (Australia), 19-11: Russian might well have won fair, but a lot closer than eight points. Hooper got zero credit in the first two rounds. Don't forget he got in hot water for the Aboriginal colors in his first round fight. Just saying.