Kazakhstan had four semi-finalists on the day and all won their bouts with light flyweight Shalkar Aikynbay getting the ball rolling by overcoming Team AIBA (International Boxing Association) representative Shyam Kumar Kakara to set up a final clash with Sulaymon Latipov of Uzbekistan, who had unanimous points win over Azerbaijan's Rufat Huseynov.

Sultan Zaurbak was the next to secure his final berth as he came through a close battle with Britain's Peter McGrail in their bantamweight bout via a split decision and he will take on Cuba's Javier Ibanez who also emerged with a win via a 2:1 score.

Ablaikhan Zhussupov powered past his Uzbekistani opponent Ikboljon Kholdarov in the lightweight class, where he will be up against the dangerous Romanian Arsen Mustafa who scored a first round technical knockout win over Japan's Goh Hosaka.

In the light heavyweight division, Kazakhstan's fourth win came in the form of Vadim Kazakov who overcame Norwegian Vegar Tregren in what was another close affair with one round scored equal but the remaining two going to the Kazakh by the narrowest of margins.

Kazakov will face a tough job to secure a world title tomorrow as he takes on not only Blagoy Naydenov but the home crowd too after the Bulgarian despatched Armenia's Narek Manasyan with relative ease.

Blagoy Naydenov powered passed Narek Manasyan and will be backed by a raucous home crowd at the Armeec Arena tomorrow ©AIBA



Uzbekistan's Sulaymon Latipov looked similarly impressive as he had too much for Rufat Huseynov of Azerbaijan and will take on Shalkar Aikhynbay, who was fighting under the AIBA flag, in the light flyweight decider.

Britain's Muhammad Ali came through his flyweight bout with Masud Yusifzada of Azerbaijan to set up a final clash with Shakur Stevenson of the United States, who beat China's Lv Ping.

Viktor Petrov and Bibert Tumenov will face each other in a Ukraine v Russia battle for gold in the light welterweight class after they saw of the challenges of Toshihiro Suzuki of Japan and Italian Vincenzo Arecchia.

Two third round technical knockouts decide the final pairing for the welterweight division as Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan overcame the Dominican Republic's Juan Solano while Croatian Prtenjaca Luka defeated Ilyas Adzinayeu of Belarus.

Luka Plantic will be the second Croatian battling for a world title tomorrow after he scored a unanimous points win over Ramil Gadzhyiev of Ukraine.

He will be up against Russian Dmitrii Nesterov who came through by the narrowest of margins against Uzbek Kozimbek Mardonov via a split decision.

The red and white chequered flag will be waving for a third time in the Armeec Arena tomorrow as Croatia's Toni Filipi will take on Cuban Yordan Hernandez in what looks set to be a tasty heavyweight contest after both came through their bouts against Kim Jinnyong of South Korea and Ukrainian Robert Marton.

American Daramni Rock secured his super heavyweight final berth with a second round stoppage of Hungarian Laszlo Komor, while Germany's Peter Kadiru came through against Russia's Marat Kerimkhanov.

Elzbieta Wojcik of Poland had too much firepower for Chinese Taipei's Chen Nien-Chin to secure a shot at the world title ©AIBA



Meanwhile the finalists in the three women categories were also decided today.

Italy's Irma Testa and Armenian Anush Grigoryan will face-off in the flyweight decider after they blitzed Neriman Istik of Turkey and Kazakh Alua Balkibekova.

Elzbieta Wojcik of Poland despatched Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei and Australian Caitlin Parker saw off the challenge of American Martha Fabela in equally dominant fashion for the right to decide the middleweight world champion.

Fabela's compatriot Jajaira Gonzalez ensured her spot in the final of the lightweight division after putting in an impressive display to come away with a unanimous points win and she will take on Turkey's Esra Yildiz who came through a much closer contest with Italy's Monica Floridia.

The action in Sofia comes to an end tomorrow with 13 world titles up for grabs while there will also be five box-offs to claim the remaining spots available for the Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games.

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