(Rau’Shee Warren’s blunder potentially cost the US its best chance at a medal. What next?)

Unlike my compatriots in wrestling and judo, boxing has the slight issue when it comes to day to day coverage of taking forever. Judo is basically all over with and boxing has merely just begun, with another prelim round to go before we even hit quarterfinals. And to think, its roughly half as many fights as the World Championships. But I digress. Its been quite the storied week thus far.

Reviewing the major stories coming in seems like a good way to look at the events thus far:

China emerging?: Well, China sent 10 men to the big show and there’s still 8 of them around. They look like they’re likely to at least have a bronze at super heavy, have a good chance at welter, and are obviously still looking strong for a gold at light fly. Everywhere else they seem destined to run into one of the divison monsters before a medal round.

US in shambles?: Well, we’ve sent 9, two were favored to medal, and one of them (Warren) is out after a shocking upset in which they danced themselves out of the tourney in astoundingly stupid fashion. The other strong medal contender looked pretty awful in his first bout. Not a good sign. On the plus side, Luis Yanez and Raynell Williams may just have enough to salvage some hardware out of these Games, and that would be a pretty big coup considering how some of their compatriots (Sadam Ali, Javier Molina) were flat out embarassed en route to losing in the opening rounds.

Cuba a mystery: They got three byes, and they must be overjoyed about that. That also means we still don’t know a whole lot about their squad. As expected, they’re already out of the show at 201+ and the draws aren’t all that helpful where they needed them to be. Still, they’re likely to do a lot better than the Americans at the moment.

So what are the big stories? Well, upsets, of course. A bunch of Gold Medalists from the ‘07 world championships are already out of the tournament, including US gold medal favorite Rau’shee Warren and surprise 81kg titlist Abbos Atoev. 4 in all are already gone and favorite at 91KG Islam Timurziev is done too. Things are only going to get wilder from here. 

48KG: Yampier Hernandez isn’t Cuba’s favorite in the games but he looked more than servicable in racking up tons of right hands on the face of Sherali Dostiyev. Harry Tanamor was shockingly beaten by Ghanan Manyo Plange, eliminating one of the biggest threats to Chinese favorite Zou Shiming. Luis Yanez has a weak enough bracket and can make some noise there, potentially being the surprise medalist for the US. Shiming looks untouchable, however.

51KG: McWilliams Arroyo and the Cuban entry both got freebies, and that’s a big benefit to them. Of course, they’re also in a bracket with the Russian Balakshin and a pair of surprisingly impressive fighters, India’s Jitender Kumar and Uzbekistan’s Tulashboy Doniyorov. The bottom half has the meat of division with Jongjohor and Mammadov fighting in the next round, surprise Lee Ok-Sung, and Euro/World bronze medalist Vincenzo Picardi.

54KG: Another absurdly bottom heavy bracket. John Joe Nevin is perhaps the best Irish fighter at the show, and he’s stuck up against Enkbaht Badar-Uugan in his next fight. Same bracket sees favorite Sergey Vodopyanov and Gu Yu of China (who easily defeated British medal hopeful Joseph Murray). The opposite side looks like a Cuba/South Korea battle is inevitable.

57KG: Selimov/Lomachenko was a rough one, but Lomachenko came out victorious. Now he has a former Olympic medalist (UZB’s Sooltonov) and will likely see China’s Li Yang in the next round should he win there. Raynell Williams got a killer draw and should actually be able to make it to the semifinals, where he will likely see Idel Torriente.

60KG: Yordenas Ugas and Domenico Valentino compete in the second round of the tourney. US fighter Sadam Ali was embarassed against Georgian Popescu, but the Romanian is unlikely to medal given that he is given the “honor” of taking on one of the top dogs rather shortly. Tishchenko and Song Guk have very favorable draws likely to get them to the semis.

64KG: Bradley Saunders has in fact moved on in one of the few bright spots for British fans. Boris Georgiev is likely his biggest obstacle to a finals appearance. Meanwhile, favorite Sapiyev had a bye in round 1 and opens against a wildly overmatched foe from Venezuela.

69KG: Demetrius Andrade didn’t look all that hot to start, and with Andrey Balanov next, well, he better heat up fast. John Jackson is still in the show representing the US Virgin Islands, which is sort of precious. Billy Joe Saunders of the UK gets the grim task of a Cuban in Round 2.

75KG: Matvey Korobov is still breathing, and so it doesn’t really matter who he fights.

81KG: World champ Atoev is gone and favorite Beterbiyev is still well in it. In fact, he has a pretty clear path to the Semis. Meanwhile, Irish fighter Kenneth Egan must be wondering what wonderful thing he did to get the worst bracket in all of Olympic boxing. He’s gonna have to try hard to miss the finals.

91KG: The heavyweights are wide open still. Mohamad Arajoui threw a lot of wild looking stuff out there in beating future trivia question Brad Pitt, and that’s good for Deontay Wilder, as he defeated a guy with just that sorta style in the first round. Cuban Osmay Acosta has an easy draw in the quarters, and the other bouts are all very intruiging. John M’Bumba and Rakhim Chakhkiev have a rematch of their semifinal bout in Chicago, Arjoui is one win away from a huge medal for Morocco, and World Champ Clemente Russo will face the dynamic wild card of the event (and argurably one of the 2-3 best fighters in the Olympics), the young Ukranian Oleksandr Usyk. Usyk looked to be a sort of final stage in the westernization of Russian fighters, with tons of head movement, body punching, and a face reminiscent of a young Igor Vovchanchin. His beatdown of Chinese fighter Yushan Nijiati was stunning to watch.

91+KG: Either it was rudimentary or a huge shock. Islam Timurziev looked somewhat pudgy and was (possibly controversially) stopped by Brit David Price in the second round of their bout, eliminating the clear favorite in the competition. Cuban Robert Alfonso was trounced by Vyladislav Glazkov in a fight that was scored a lot closer than it seemed to actually play out. Oscar Rivas and Newfel Ouatah both stunningly moved into the Quarters as well. Meanwhile, Roberto Cammarelle, Zhang Zhilei, and Jaroslavas Jaksto won by an average of just over 12 points, while Ruslan Myrsatayev took out his Aussie opposition in under a minute. Price/Jaksto is, by far, the biggest fight at 201+ in the quarters, though it is looking increasingly like a rematch between Glazkov/Cammarelle will once again decide a gold medal.