Boxing WB World Championships 2025

[Illya 590]

5 hours ago, copravolley said:

Khyzniak come to professional world? Don't complain, because Khyzniak did win gold in Paris, and our Abbes was robbed in the 1st round by the Uzbek (some people of referee), who as a country had very good contacts with the judges, watched by their results there.

Nope, he will be in amateur for one more cycle and then will switch it to the pro level

[Ogreman 379]

Predictions part 5 (W51kg, W60kg, W80kg, W80+kg)

 

 

W51kg

 

 

Bracket 1

 

Ok so this first bracket very likely throws us a rematch of the last Olympic cycles’ 50kg world champions. Nikhat Zareen (4)  will beat Jennifer Lozano (19)  and either Yuna Nishinaka (7)  or Monique Suraci (16)  while Buse Cakiroglu (1)  is beating Natalia Kuczewska (11)  . Nishinaka is the only boxer here who might cause any trouble.

Anyway then we get Nikhat against Cakiroglu, their one and only previous meeting was at Strandja in 2022 with Nikhat winning a split decision. However Nikhat hasn’t put together a great tournament since the worlds in 2023 and in general I just think Cakiroglu is the better and more versatile boxer so I am backing Cakiroglu.

 

Bracket 2

 

This second bracket is a little underwheliming. The standout name is 52kg Asian champion Feruza Kazakova (5)  who did fail to medal at the IBA worlds earlier this year but to be fair she did lose to eventual champion Pang Chol Mi  . She has to beat Olympian Caroline de Almeida (10) in the last 16. The most likely contender to meet her in a quarter final is former European under 22 champion Lucia Ayari (9)  although she does have to beat Esmeralda Patino (23)  and probably Mungunsaran Balsan (18) . Kazakova isn’t great but I can’t see her not medalling here.

 

Bracket 3

 

So Alua Balkibekova (3)  is the reigning world champion at 50kg but at the same time failed to qualify for the Olympics last year so it will be interesting to see how she goes here as she did have a soft draw at the IBA worlds up until the final itself. Her route to a medal likely goes through the boxer who denied her a spot at the Olympics in Maxi Kloetzer (8)  although Kloetzer does have to beat Venelina Poptoleva (15)  first. While Kloetzer is a solid boxer that fight last year was close and it seems to me like Balkibekova should be able to avenge that loss.

 

Bracket 4

 

This last bracket is the toughest of the lot here. Pihla Kaivo Oja (2)  has come into her own this season and is unbeaten winning most impressively at the world cup in Astana and is rewarded here by being the second seed. Having said that this is not an easy draw. First up she should meet Daina Moorehouse (6)  who herself is due a breakout provided Moorehouse can beat 2023 world medallist Laura Fuertes (14) . Moorehouse loves a good split decision loss though so let’s pick Kaivo Oja.

The other last 16 fight should see Mckenzie Wright (12)  meet Qi Xinyu (13) . Qi is at best the third choice Chinese boxer here but given that the top 2 are the Olympic champion and the world silver medallist she is still probably quite good. I don’t know though, as far as I can tell this is her first international tournament. Kaivo Oja to medal but not convincingly.

 

Medals-

 

Gold- Buse Cakiroglu , Silver-  Pihla Kaivo Oja , Bronze-  Feruza Kazakova , Alua Balkibekova  .

 

Kaivo Oja beat Balkibekova in Astana and Cakiroglu won’t be troubled by Kazakova so the semi finals here should be straightforward. Cakiroglu and Kaivo Oja could make an interesting  final and Cakiroglu has lost 3 of her last 4 global finals. I do think she is the safer pick though.

 

 

 

W60kg

 

 

This used to be the strongest women’s weight class by miles, it well isn’t anymore

 

Bracket 1

 

Rebeca Santos (1)  replaces Beatriz Ferreira in the Brazil squad and while her historical results are not great she is tentatively my top ranked boxer here based off how she looked this year. The draw has been kind to her so she should medal. A quarter final against one of Vladislava Kukhta (16) , Sara Beram (17)  or Camilo Camilo (22)  who has moved down from welterweight is all that stands in Santos’ way.

 

Bracket 2

 

The fact that Rebecca Nicoli (14)  won one of the world cups this year is pretty telling of how much weaker this division is this year. She is probably a slight favourite to make a quarter final from the top half of this bracket including technically a European medallist Ana Starovoitova (23) , Sitora Turdibekova (12)  and European under 23 silver medallist Tetiana Dovgal (13) .

Viktoriya Grafeyeva (2)  broke out to win IBA world silver earlier this year but she is eminently beatable and former world medallist Donjeta Sadiku (5) should believe she can beat her. Lucky Kings Wheatley (15)  will meet the winner.

As much as I am not convinced by Grafeyeva, she is still the clear pick to medal here.

 

Bracket 3

 

This bracket is more interesting and one of the most open in the entire tournament. European medallist Gizem Ozer (11)  should beat Ayaka Taguchi (18)  and make it to the quarter final stage but who she would then meet is anybody’s guess.

Sanju Khatri (7)  meets Aneta Rygielska (8)  who is the very rare case of moving down a weightclass and looking worse. Generally in women’s boxing if you can move down a division and gain a height/ reach advantage it should play into your favour (see my 57kg predictions) but Rygielska has moved back to 60kg after 5 or so years at welterweight and looked atrocious. She somehow looks smaller as well. She tends to show up when it matters though so is still a tough opening fight for Astana world cup medallist Sanju.

The other last 32 fight sees Jajaira Gonzalez (9)  meeting the rangy IBA world bronze medallist Miroslava Jedinakova (10) . I would lean towards Jedinakova and Rygielska coming through those fights in spite of my contradictory rankings and from there despite her terrible form I guess I am picking Rygielska to medal as one of her only wins this year did come against Gizem Ozer. I have no confidence in that pick though.

 

Bracket 4

 

2023 63kg world champion Yang Chenyu (3)  is the clear favourite here although she has a tough path to the podium. First up is Namuun Monkhor (19)  followed by the 2022 youth world champion Maud Van der Toorn (6) . Then in a quarter fiinal should be the inconsistent Oh Yeonji (4)  provided she beats Krisandy Rios (21) . Oh completely bottled an Olympic medal last year against Wu Shih Yi  but I don’t think will match her medal winning performance at the 2023 worlds here.

 

Medals-

Gold- Rebeca Santos , Silver-  Yang Chengyu , Bronze-  Viktoriya Grafeyeva ,  Aneta Rygielska .

 

All of these are flawed boxers but someone has to win here. Santos lost the Astana world cup final to Grafeyeva but that was in Kazkahstan and I am hoping she has learnt from that. I am being incredibly brave to pick Rygielska to medal, not a chance am I picking her to win more than that so Yang it is. Tentatively picking Santos in the final but I really don’t know.

 

W80kg

 

I’m going to just pick the medals for the women’s heavyweights just cause there really isn’t much to them. They are normally a great avenue for host nations to inflate their medal totals and while England picked a couple of decent boxers here the draw has not been too kind

 

Gold- Eseta Flint (1) , Silver-  Pooja Rani (2) , Bronze-  Zhong Qimeng (4) ,  Elif Guneri (3) .

 

Eseta Flint was failing to qualify for the Olympics for Tonga last year and now is the favourite for gold here having won in Astana which just shows the difference between 75kg and 80kg. I am rather relieved that 75kg is still the Olympic weight class. There is not much else of note to mention here. Zhong medalling is a complete guess, the only other potentially interesting result would be if young Emilia Koterska (9)  beat Pooja Rani.

 

 

W80+kg

 

Gold- Nupur Sheoran (1) , Silver-  Yilian Zhan (2) , Bronze-  Celine Lee-lo (3) ,  Seyma Duztas (9) .

 

I actually think Nupur is kinda good, my second lowest ranked boxer Seyma Duztas only having to beat a Saudi Arabian to medal is objectively hilarious and I guess a rare New Zealand medal is somewhat notable. Only other thing I have to say about 80kg and 80+kg is that it is honestly refreshing to not be predicting either an Uzbek or a Kazakh on the podium.

[Ogreman 379]

Projected medal table

 

 

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Kazkahstan	8	1	2	11
Uzbekistan	4	3	3	10
Turkey	2	2	2	6
Ireland*	2	0	1	3
India	1	2	4	7
Brazil	1	2	2	5
Australia*	1	1	1	3
Chinese Taipei	1	0	2	3
China	0	2	3	5
Cuba	0	1	3	4
Poland	0	1	1	2
Japan	0	1	1	2
Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
Finland	0	1	0	1
France	0	1	0	1
South Korea	0	1	0	1
GB/ England	0	0	3	3
Philippines	0	0	2	2
Spain	0	0	1	1
Mongolia	0	0	1	1
Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Hungary	0	0	1	1
Jordan	0	0	1	1
Germany	0	0	1	1
Italy	0	0	1	1
USA	0	0	1	1
New Zealand	0	0	1	1

 

Well this is honestly not quite what I expected. I have Kazakhstan overthrowing the recent Uzbek dominance but surprisingly I have them failing to repeat their success from the women’s IBA worlds earlier this year and instead win 7 of the 10 men’s events which would be a remarkable turnaround given how the Olympics went. Uzbekistan don’t have a bad championships in this projection but they will be disappointed if they don’t top the medal table. Turkey continue to be at or close to the top of the table on the women’s side of things.

 

Interestingly before Serbia earlier this year, 3 straight host nations and topped the medal table at world championships but it is hard to see the Brits managing that level of success. 3 medals though is probably a solid result given their lack of world class boxers.

 

A couple of these predictions are already wrong including controversially Ireland’s Kelyn Cassidy so it does look very much like Ireland will be relying on the O’Rourke sisters to salvage a respectable championships here which is not a position I feel great about.

 

India should be happy enough in this scenario as would China and Chinese Taipei. Cuba would be disappointed if they don’t produce a world champion but honestly I think this is a good outcome given how relatively weak their squad is.

 

In terms of disappointments, I was quite impressed with Japan and Azerbaijan’s respective squads on paper and am surprised I didn’t pick a single Azeri to medal. As such don’t be surprised if they outperform this.

 

Ukraine meanwhile, their period in the doldrums appears to be continuing for now but given their continuing dominant form at youth level, it is matter of time before they become a powerhouse again.

 

My final observation is that given that these are in Europe and almost all of the top European nations are here, it is notable coming off the back of an Olympics dominated by Asian boxers how few Europeans I picked to medal here.

[Bearas 602]

I've went to the championships today, really awesome atmosphere..

Best fans:  

Worst fans:  

Enjoyed every minute, also ended up sitting with whole Dutch national team to the left and Lithuanian national team to the right so that was fun 

Edited September 6, 2025 by Bearas

[Josh 11,827]

 

 Ofori and Al-Ahmadieh through to the quarterfinals 

 

With Sanford not competing here, Cavanaugh having retired, and Thibeault having switched to pro-boxing there’s a little bit of a hole in Canadian boxing, but our boxers that are here are doing decently. 

Edited September 8, 2025 by Josh

[Gianlu33 5,374]

Charaabi defeated Akbas in quartefinals  What upset!

[copravolley 564]

6 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

Charaabi defeated Akbas in quartefinals  What upset!

Sure medal for her?

[Gianlu33 5,374]

1 minute ago, copravolley said:

Sure medal for her?

Yup.

[copravolley 564]

4 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

Yup.

Probably bronze?

[copravolley 564]

So, if Lenzi wins today, we will win our second medal here in Olympic category. A great result considering we are missing 3 of our top boxers (Testa, Carini and Abbes). I hope they will return in the future. 

 

We will also see if Charaabi, after beating the favorite from Turkey, can maintain this level and advance to the final, or if she loses to weaker boxer from the USA. In theory, the Italian would be even a chance for gold and certainly for the final, but Charaabi has never been consistently at a very high level for a long time. Bronze will certainly be a bit of disappointment in this situation.

Edited September 10, 2025 by copravolley