IBA World Junior Championships. Seven more Armenian boxers advanced to the quarterfinals © IBA

Armenian boxers continue their successful journey in the 2023 IBA World Junior Championships in Yerevan.

The day in Mika sport complex was full of great fights and for the first time during the tournament two sessions were held to decide the quarterfinal pairs for the last 7 weight categories.

In the afternoon session Armenia stayed perfect producing 4 from 4 wins in 1/8 finals.  Vagharshak Keyan (48 kg),  defeated Stefan Boncu from Romania, then Aren Khachatryan (52 kg) was too strong for Christopher Balcazar from Ecuador. Khachatryan Tigran Makichyan  defeated Mekan Sabyrov (57 kg) from Turkmenistan. And in the super heavyweight category Tigran Khachatryan didn’t give any chance to Alexandru Butoi from Romania.

Keyan will meet in the quarterfinals with Rida Al-Tamimi from Denmark, who defeated Adrian Drewnowski from Poland. Tajikistan’s Mansurkhuja Muminov won his fight against Aaron Keogh from the Republic of Ireland and advanced to the next round where he will meet Nygman Nygmet from Kazakhstan. Sikander Sikander from India defeated Abdulaziz Abdunazarov from Uzbekistan, while Moetaz Hammami from Tunisia was disqualified in the fight against Ramzidin Urmanov from kyrgyzstan. Sikander and Urmanov will fight against each other for the semifinal spot. The last pair of 48 kg weight categories formed Emal Hamdam from Germany and Nearchos-Petros Konstantinoudis from Greece. The latter stunned Russia’s Iman Magemoedov winning by technical knockout in the second round.

In the 52 kg weight category Peter Benedek (Hungary) in a narrow battle defeated Ramazan Orynbassar from Kazakhstan and will meet Aren Kharatyan in the next round. Pakistan’s Rehman Soban surprisingly went to quarterfinals after defeating greek boxer Vasileios Vasileiadis by split decision and will meet there Yanko Iliev from Bulgaria.

Maksim Chaplygin from Russia continued his dominant performance in this championship by defeating Adem Doghmen from Tunisia. It will be exciting to watch his quarterfinal fight against Ammantur Dzhumaev (Kyrgyzstan) who stopped Germany’s Daniel Diesendorf in the second round by technical knockout. The last pair of the quarterfinals formed Oscar Grodzicki (Poland) and Christian Doyle (Republic of Ireland)

In the 57 kg weight category Platon Kozlov from Russia was dominant in the second round of his fight against Lennox Chigango from Zimbabwe, and the referee stopped the bout. He will now meet Tigran Makichyan to fight for a semifinal spot. Ciprian Iofciu from Romania and Delirbek Sadirov from Kazakhstan formed the second pair of quarterfinals in the top of the bracket. 

Platon Kozlov from Russia (in the red) after winning his fight against Lennox Chigango from Zimbabwe © IBA
Platon Kozlov from Russia (in the red) after winning his fight against Lennox Chigango from Zimbabwe © IBA

Afghanistan’s Amanollah Sahak feels very comfortable in the ring so far. Today he defeated Alexander Marga from Moldova and advanced to quarterfinals, where he will meet Irish boxer Patrick Kelly. Albania’s Adam Maca stunned Uzbekistan’s Pahlavonjon Ibrohimov winning the bout by unanimous decision. Now he will meet Tsimur Siankevich from Belarus and will try to secure his place in the semifinals of the 57 kg weight category.

In the super heavyweight category Ivan Bogdanov from Russia defeated Bexultan Kairatuly (Kazakhstan). Islam Salikhov from Kazakhstan also went through the 1/8 final.

Armenian boxers stayed unbeaten also in the evening session. Alik Ktshoyan (63 kg) outboxed Arvaz Akhmadi from Kyrgyzstan, though the latter didn’t agree with the judges’ decision. Now he will meet Khikmatillo Ulmasov in the quarterfinals. The winner of their bout will meet the best boxer of the fight between Derlys Martinez (India) in the semifinals.

One of the exciting battles of the quarterfinal will be between John Maher from the Republic of Ireland and Zakhar BEspalov from Russia. Both looked too confident in their 1/8 final bouts. The last pair in the 63 kg weight category quarterfinals was formed by Emmanouil Fotiadis (Greece) and Vasilije Djurdjevic (Serbia).

In the other battle of Armenian and Kyrgyz boxers Argishti Hakobyan (66 kg) defeated Ramazan Isaev and now is preparing for the quarterfinals battle against Matija Berend from Croatia. Iran’s Mohamad Mesbahi will meet Uzbekistan’s Akbar Ahmadov, who outboxed Russia’s Ti,ofei Teniaev in the 1/8 final.

In the bottom bracket of the 66 kg weight category David Torres from Mexico will meet Eugenio Montoya (Spain), and Abubakr Ghafurov (Tajikistan) will meet Ivan Siniak from Belarus. 

The last bout of the day on the ring A saw Armenia’s Samvel Siramargyan (70 kg) winning his 1/8 final bout against Iranian Mahan Sajedijablou by unanimous decision. He will meet India’s Rahul Kundu in the quarterfinal. Uzbekistan’s Norbek Abdulaev and Russia’s Akhmad Aidamirov produced a very exciting fight, but it was Abdulaev who won the narrow battle by split decision (3-2). His opponent in the quarterfinals will be Alex Noonan from the Republic of Ireland.

Taesan Prak from South Korea and Festim Nimani from Germany went through the 1/8 finals and will meet each other in the next round. Albania’s Ahmed Koci and Pawel Urbanski from Poland formed the last pair of the 70 kg weight category quarterfinals.

On the 6th day of the competition the quarterfinals of men’s and women’s competition will start.