Competition at the boxing venue continues Saturday, with two sessions in the men’s flyweight, welterweight, heavyweight and super heavyweight divisions. After having three fighters in action Friday, with Mikaela Mayer winning her bout, USA Boxing has another fighter making his Rio Olympics debut Saturday.
Antonio Vargas, who won gold at last summer’s Pan American Games and was USA Boxing’s Elite Male Athlete of the Year as well, opens up in the flyweight division against Brazil’s Juliao Neto. At 34 years of age Neto is fighting in his second Summer Olympics, and it’s safe to say that the home crowd will be rooting him on. But this is a fight that the skilled Vargas will be expected to win, thus helping USA Boxing rebound from losses taken by bronze medalist Nico Hernandez and Carlos Balderas Jr. on Friday.
Two medalists will be determined Saturday as the heavyweight semis are on the schedule, with the two losers receiving bronze medals. The first semifinal, between Russia’s Evgeny Tischenko and Uzbekistan’s Rustam Tulaganov, will be fought during the morning session with Cuba’s Erislandy Savon and Vassily Levit of Kazakhstan fighting during the evening session. Savon’s looking to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Felix, who won three straight Olympic gold medals in the heavyweight division (1992, 1996 and 2000) representing Cuba.
WATCH LIVE: Men’s boxing (flyweight prelims, welterweight quarters, heavyweight semis, super heavyweight prelims) morning session -- 10 a.m. Eastern
WATCH LIVE: Men’s boxing (flyweight prelims, welterweight quarters, heavyweight semis, super heavyweight prelims) evening session -- 4 p.m. Eastern