2 new weight classes for women boxers in Tokyo Olympics

HIGHLIGHTS FROM RIO: Uzbekistan heralded its arrival as an Olympic boxing powerhouse by topping the medals desk with three golds and 7 whole. … U.S. middleweight Claressa Shields and British flyweight Nicola Adams turned the primary two-time gold medalists in ladies’s boxing. … Bantamweight Robeisy Ramírez additionally gained his second gold, whereas light-weight Robson Conceição had the match’s greatest second in successful Brazil’s first boxing gold. … Evgeny Tishchenko’s heavyweight gold-medal victory over Kazakhstan’s Vassily Levit impressed outrage in a sport with many years of questionable selections in its historical past.

WHAT’S NEW: Two extra ladies’s weight lessons have been added, and the entire variety of ladies fighters is as much as 100 from 36 in Rio. … That addition additionally meant the subtraction of two males’s weight lessons. As an alternative of 5 divisions beneath welterweight, Tokyo can have simply three. … The ladies will combat three three-minute rounds after going for 4 two-minute rounds in Rio.

TOKYO EXPECTATIONS: The fighters are competing on the Ryogoku Kokugikan, the location of the most important occasions in sumo for the previous century. … A number of professionals are competing within the second Olympics through which they’re allowed, together with three People, however none is a longtime professional. … Uzbekistan has despatched one other highly effective staff led by gold medalist Shakhoibidin Zoirov, who has already turned professional. … Britain, Uzbekistan and the Russian Olympic Group lead the sphere with 11 fighters apiece. … With 5 weight lessons and a wealth of recent expertise, boxing may see its first ladies’s gold medalist from outdoors North America and Europe.

ATHLETES TO WATCH: Levit is again for an additional shot at gold. So is Vladimir Nikitin, the Russian scrapper who gained bronze in Rio with a choice over an infuriated Michael Conlan, who then beat Nikitin in a professional rematch. … Three-time world champion Lázaro Álvarez of Cuba will strive once more for his first gold. … Britain is sending twin brothers — light-weight Luke McCormack and welterweight Pat McCormack. … Cuba’s Roniel Iglesias is again for his fourth Olympics seeking his second gold medal. … Onerous-hitting middleweight Eumir Marcial, who’s signed to Manny Pacquiao’s promotional firm and has educated with Freddie Roach, will try to win the Philippines’ first gold medal. … U.S. Military employees sergeant Naomi Graham inherits Shields’ mantle because the American middleweight.

GOLD MEDAL MOMENTS: Aug. 3: ladies’s featherweight and males’s welterweight; Aug. 4: males’s gentle heavyweight; Aug. 5: males’s featherweight; Aug. 6: males’s heavyweight; Aug. 7: males’s flyweight, males’s middleweight, ladies’s flyweight, ladies’s welterweight; Aug. 8: males’s light-weight, males’s tremendous heavyweight, ladies’s light-weight, ladies’s middleweight.

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Extra AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports activities