AIBA Youth World Championships 2018

[HI-TECH Boxing]

Just caught up on Ivan Price's fight. He's very sharp when he has space to work but his fights always seem to end up sloppy and full of clinching because he has no inside game and seemingly can't keep the fight at long range for a whole three minutes at a time. He seems very physically weak too. Nevertheless he gave his opponent today a pretty good schooling in the second half of the bout

Tudsbury looks like a lot of fun too

Ivan Price is really tall for his weight class. He will always be a problem on the outside. His opponent today tried to take it to him and it worked for the first round. He was awkward and sloppy, which is what gives Price trouble.
Price got rocked in that first round, but took control in the last two rounds.
His next opponent isn't bad, but he isn't as awkward as the opponent from today.

Price could very well be the representative for Team GB at 52kg for the 2020 Olympics. He is going to tower over everyone at that weight class. 52kg will be the lowest division for the Olympics, it looks like.

The Middleweight division has been the least talented, so far, at these competitions.
Tudsbury should win his next fight, but he'll have to fight the Asian Champion from Thailand, who has yet to compete at these World Championships, in the Quarterfinals.
Brazil, Thailand, and Kazakhstan are probably the favorites at Middleweight. Russia is a strong contender as well.
None of them competed today, so hopefully they give the Middleweight division a better look.
The European Champion from Italy is not competing, if I'm not mistaken. He is the one that eliminated Tudsbury at the European Championships.

[NEETzsche]

Khalokov is very stylish but he got hit a lot today and even took what looked like a legit KD in round three. He fights like a Cuban with his hands down but he throws too many punches in combination, leaving his head as a stationary target. The slick Cubans tend to throw just one or two at a time and then lean out of range and pivot away. He has the raw tools to be an excellent boxer though

[NEETzsche]

Tough fight for Popov just now against a strong Thai opponent. They pretty much went to war, even exchanging eight-counts in the second round. Popov's technique looked a lot less pristine than in the past when I've seen him but he showed that he can grit it out when things get tough. Credit to the Thai for turning it into that kind of fight with relentless pressure and some nice bodywork in round one

[HI-TECH Boxing]

Khalokov is very stylish but he got hit a lot today and even took what looked like a legit KD in round three. He fights like a Cuban with his hands down but he throws too many punches in combination, leaving his head as a stationary target. The slick Cubans tend to throw just one or two at a time and then lean out of range and pivot away. He has the raw tools to be an excellent boxer though

Like I said, I would like to see Khalokov fight with his hands up. He does tend to leave his head high. Needs more upper body movement.
He actually does fight a little like a Cuban boxer.
He gets carried away trying to do flashy things, but if he just stayed controlled he would be something.
What I like about him is how loose he is. He is smooth but he tries to rush things.
A lot of Uzbekistan boxers fight with their hands down. I don't like it.
57kg at the Olympics is there for the taking. I think he has the tools to do it.

Tough fight for Popov just now against a strong Thai opponent. They pretty much went to war, even exchanging eight-counts in the second round. Popov's technique looked a lot less pristine than in the past when I've seen him but he showed that he can grit it out when things get tough. Credit to the Thai for turning it into that kind of fight with relentless pressure and some nice bodywork in round one

I think the eight-count on Popov was not a good call. He slipped but I guess technically a punch did land. If you look at the replay Popov actually landed the harder shot, while the Thai fighter slapped with the palm of his hand.
Popov could have easily stayed on the outside and boxed him, but he decided to go toe-to-toe. If he is going to do that he needs to improve his inside game. He isn't clueless in there, but still has work to do.
I think it was more Popov's choice to fight that way. I notice he does that against shorter opponents. He always ends up doing it, but he probably shouldn't.

Thai fighter at 60kg looked really solid today. He was awarded the boxer of the tournament at the Asian Championships and today he gave a glimpse of why.
Brazilian at Middleweight is very good as well.
He schooled Lorenzo Simpson, who has been getting a lot of hype, at the Pan-American Youth Championships.
Russian fighter at Light Heavyweight was pretty solid as well.
I also like the look of the Kazakh fighter at 69kg.

Based on what I saw today, Tudsbury will probably medal at Middleweight.

[NEETzsche]

Dominant performances from Khalokov and Price today, much better than the last round. The Brazilian Oliveira looked impressive too against a good Kazakh opponent. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the full evening session today

[HI-TECH Boxing]

Dominant performances from Khalokov and Price today, much better than the last round. The Brazilian Oliveira looked impressive too against a good Kazakh opponent. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the full evening session today

Khalokov looked excellent today. I thought it was going to be a tough match-up, because the Brazilian impressed me at the Pan-American Youth Championships and looked good in his last performance. Khalokov made pretty easy work of him though. The height advantage was too much to overcome.
Same thing happened in the Rivera-Mekonnen fight. Mekonnen looked like a very good boxer in his first two fights, but Rivera was able to keep him on the outside with his height and reach advantage; his footwork was good as well. Mekonnen had a bit of success though, while Khalokov completely shout-out his opponent.
They're giving eight-counts rather easily at these Championships.

Oliveira is good. He outboxed Asa Steven of USA, another Semi-finalist in the weight, in the final of the Pan-American Youth Championships. Brazil was the most impressive team at those Championships.
However, I don't know if anyone is going to be able to handle Price's height in this division. If Price can stay at 52kg for the Olympics he is going to be one of the favorites.

[HI-TECH Boxing]

Russia actually has a pretty good team. I just know they can still improve.
Kazakhstan and Russia have the best teams here.

[Tom Cruise]

Popov is well worth a look:

Will check him out. Tudbury about to fight a Russian now

[Tom Cruise]

All done. Thought it was close in first 2, but Tudbury clearly took 3rd.

....Russian took it on cards. Tough for Tud. Will prob think he was hard done by there.

Edit: 3/5 judges gave it 3-0 to Russian. 2 had much more reasonable 2-1 cards, with at least the clear 3rd round going to the Englisher.

Nice to see Am boxing is as well judged as ever

[NEETzsche]

All done. Thought it was close in first 2, but Tudbury clearly took 3rd.

....Russian took it on cards. Tough for Tud. Will prob think he was hard done by there.

Edit: 3/5 judges gave it 3-0 to Russian. 2 had much more reasonable 2-1 cards, with at least the clear 3rd round going to the Englisher.

Nice to see Am boxing is as well judged as ever

Price was fortunate to get the nod over Oliveira so I guess it balances out as far as England is concerned. It was a pretty ugly contest but Oliveira seemed to be picking his punches better and landing cleaner whenever they traded

I disagreed with the result of the other Flyweight semi-final too. I thought Stevens struggled with Kattimani's aggression in the last two rounds and ate a lot of big shots