Another day, another set of would be medalists. What was so interesting is that Ireland could lock up two medals at the ‘08 Games, a major surprise for their team, and they had favorable draws in their favor. Meanwhile, the Cubans could continue their dominance and put two more men in the semis.

48KG: Paddy Barnes, a respected but zero-time medalist in any major competition, got the benefit of a great draw and was matched up with Polish flyweight Lucasz Maszczyk. Maszczyk is a well schooled and technically decent fighter, but Barnes forward marching style earned him an 11-5 victory and a surprise berth in the semis. There he meets China’s Zou Shiming (pictured above), who outpointed his Kazakh foe 9-5 in a bout more reminiscent of a game of tag than any great war. Shiming beat Barnes previously 22-9 but with scoring way down in the Olympics, it will be a closer bout for no other reason but.

On the opposite end of the bracket, Mongolia puts another man in the semi finals as Purevdorjiin Seradama prevailed in a low scoring bout against his awkward Thai opponent. He’ll face Yampier Hernandez of Cuba, who easily defeated Brazil’s Paulo Carvalho using superb defense to counter the wild punching of Carvalho. Hernandez/Shiming seems entirely likely and is going to be one hell of a fight.

60KG:

Baik Jong-Sub did not show to his Quarterfinal bout due to illness, giving Armenia its first medal in boxing with Hrachik Javakhyan’s walkover win, the first thus far in the Olympics. He will face Aleksei Tishchenko in a rematch of a bout the two had in the 2006 European Amateur Championship that Tishchenko won 39-15. Tishchenko advanced with an easy win over overmatch Colombian Darley Perez. The opposite bracket saw an ugly fight between Dadoua Sow taking a win over Hu Qing. Qing and Sow threw few punches that weren’t coming from the rafters, next to no solid jabs, and held like as if it were a lover’s embrace. A 2 point warning for Sow boosted him to a 7-6 lead with less than a minute remaining and he tacked on two points to make it easier. Yordenis Ugas of Cuba advanced with a win over Georgian Popescu 11-7 after forcing Popescu to take the lead foot and countering off his attacks. Ugas last faced the Russian 60KG representative in 2006 during a meet when he beat Maxim Ignatiev by a margin of 25-4, thus giving an extra boost to the potential final.

81KG:

Kenneth Egan’s good fortune continues, easily beating Washington Silva with a 8-0 shutout and earning a spot in the medal round. He then faces Tony Jeffries of the UK, who had gained entry with a dull but decisive win over Imre Szello. Jeffries used the one-two combination to rack up virtually all of his 10 points in the win, but against Egan, he faces a far more dynamic fighter. Egan is expected to roll in that bout and onto the finals in a shot for Ireland’s first boxing gold.

Meanwhile, the otherside of the bracket was exciting for all the wrong reasons. Djakhon Kurbanov and Yerkebuian Shynaliyev fought in a rematch of a fight that ended in a DQ the previous year at the World Championships. Amazingly, this fight too ended in a DQ as Kurbanov bit the trapezius of Shynaliyev in a clinch. Shynaliyev goes on to fight for a medal against Chinese boxer Zhang Xiaoping who had beaten Algeria’s Abdelhafid Benchabla by a score of 12-7. Shynaliyev has previously beaten Xiaoping 14-5 at the World Championships of 2007.

TODAY:

Well, technically they’re already done, but there’s plenty for American audiences to look for in today’s events. There’s a couple potentially interesting bouts at flyweight (particularly Kumar/Balakshin) and some opportunities for breakout performances at middleweight. James DeGale could put another medal in the pockets of the Brits with a big win today against seasoned Artayev of Kazakhstan. The Cubans could put in its 7th and 8th medalists into semi final action, Ireland could pick up a 3rd, Kazakhstan could stem some of the bleeding, and India could win its first Olympic medal with an upset in either weight class.