Tokyo 2020 boxing results (Day 3, Morning Session): Upsets and strong action highlight another set of fights

Women’s featherweights

• Irma Testa (Italy) def. Michaela Walsh (Ireland), 5:0: Walsh was a top medal hope in the division, the No. 4 seed, but she’s one-and-done, while Testa wins her second fight in Tokyo and advances to the quarterfinals. Her fight with Caroline Veyre could be a good one. It’s been a rough go for the Irish boxers thus far,
• Caroline Veyre (Canada) def. Nikolina Cacic (Croatia), 5:0: Cacic is a good fighter, but Veyre was just really good here, showed a well-developed game, great skill set, threw enough to be considered exciting, but it was all used efficiently, too, just a sharp performance, highly impressive.
• Jenny Marcela Arias (Colombia) def. Stanimira Petrova (Bulgaria), 3:2: Arias took the first and third rounds, Petrova made a good stand in the second. Solid fight, Arias’ style was fun to watch in particular. Also to be clear, the Olympics are going to spell it “Yeni,” but Arias herself spells it “Jenny.”
• Nesthy Petecio (Philippines) def. Yu-ting Lin (Chinese Taipei), 3:2: An upset here, as Lin came in the top seed, but Petecio out-worked her just enough and made it two in a row in Tokyo after fighting and winning in the first bout of the entire competition. It was a very close fight, Petecio took the first, I’d say Lin deserved the second, and the third was tough to call, but I’d have nicked to Petecio, too. Dramatic fight where they both went for it in the third.

Men’s middleweights

• Andrej Csemez (Slovakia) def. Aaron Prince (Trinidad and Tobago), 4:1: Long journey for the 35-year-old Prince to get here, but Csemez was just better, though Prince gave it a great go in the second and third rounds and one judge gave him both of those.

Photo by LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images

• Euri Cedeno (Dominican Republic) def. Eldric Sella (Refugee Olympic Team), RSC: A real heartbreaker for Sella, who had a remarkable journey to even make it to the Olympics. Give the story a read, it’s worth it. Once the bell rang, though, it started bad and didn’t last long. Cedeno dropped Sella on a left hand about 15 seconds in, and the fight was stopped inside of 70 seconds. You feel good for Cedeno moving on, but terrible for Sella to go down that quickly.
• Francisco Veron (Argentina) def. Adam Chartoi (Sweden), 5:0: Veron won the first two rounds clearly, though Chartoi kept having occasional success. Chartoi had a very basic approach, has some skills, but Veron the more dynamic, well-rounded fighter, better aggression in particular.
• Yuito Moriwaki (Japan) def. Shahin Mousavi (Iran), 3:2: Ugly fight, probably could have gone the other way but Mousavi also all but gave away the first round with extremely untidy boxing, leading with his head constantly. He was better in the second and third seemed close, so not a surprise that the host country fighter gets the nod in the end.

Men’s flyweights

• Sulemanu Tetteh (Ghana) def. Rodrigo Marte (Dominican Republic), 3:2: Seems to have been a somewhat controversial decision, and it’s a sizable upset, Marte was a pretty heavy favorite and had a good first round. Can’t really tell you if there’s outrage here because thanks to NBC’s crack coverage of this session, which has featured an absolute assault of poorly-timed commercials, everyone missed the first minute of the crucial third round.
• Carlo Paalam (Philippines) def. Brendan Irvine (Ireland), 4:1: Paalam was just too quick, swarmed too much for Irvine in the first and most of the second, and while he spoiled down the stretch in the third, he did that knowing he was basically protecting the lead. Irvine is one-and-done for the second straight Olympics. He’s clearly a sound fighter but couldn’t get a jab going at all on Paalam, and that was what his corner wanted from him. Paalam also nailed him back every time Irvine did land clean, it seemed.

Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images

• Shakhobidin Zoirov (Uzbekistan) def. Batuhan Ciftci (Turkey), 5:0: Zoirov won gold in this division at Rio 2016, and this is a loaded class, he’s not even seeded this year. And he’s definitely not out of form or anything. He dominated this fight. His footwork is so good, and this was a fight where you just clearly see a difference in levels. Ciftci also received a standing eight in the second round and couldn’t land much of anything of real note.
• Ryomei Tanaka (Japan) def. Yoel Finol (Venezuela), 5:0: Nothing sketchy or “home bias” here, Tanaka just flat-out beat the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. He was clever, landed to the body, looked good defensively, he was just better than Finol, who is very good. This is a loaded class in terms of talent, and Tanaka being this good against this opponent makes it seem even more so.
• Jianguan Hu (China) def. Sakhil Alakhverdovi (Georgia), 5:0: Hu was just too quick, too elusive, and Alakhverdovi couldn’t find him very much. Hu started southpaw, boxed orthodox some, real fancy showing for him. Styles made the fight and the style was all Hu’s.
• Yuberjen Martinez (Colombia) def. Rajab Mahommed (Botswana), 5:0: Martinez won silver at light flyweight at Rio 2016, and says he was ready to move up even if that division hadn’t been cut. He moves on to face top seed Amit Panghal of India, and that could be a really good fight. This one was very good, Martinez has a great pressure style, and Mahommed was overwhelmed and a bit out of his depth, but he was working really hard trying to land off the back foot. It’s just Martinez constantly put him on the back foot.