2009 AIBA World Championships

2009 AIBA World Championships Action Begins in Milan

Competition began this morning at the 2009 AIBA World Championships in Milan, Italy with three sessions a day taking place throughout the preliminary rounds. The official event draw was completed on Monday afternoon in Milan, Italy, setting the paths for all 11 U.S. boxers as they compete for international gold. For the first time, AIBA instituted a seeding system for the event, based upon a boxer's success in previous major international competition. 

Three U.S. boxers are competing on the first day of competition in the Mediolanum Forum in Milan with flyweight Louie Byrd (Denver, Colo.) opening competition today for his U.S. team in a bout with Mexico's Braulio Avila, and light welterweight Frankie Gomez (Broadway, Calif.) competing in his first world championships bout against Mikhail Bakarara of Belarus in afternoon action.  Super heavyweight Michael Hunter (Las Vegas, Nev.) will face off in a highly anticipated bout in his opening contest of the event, taking on reigning Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle on Tuesday evening at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan. Cammarelle will enjoy strong hometown support as he competes on familiar turf in Milan. 

On Wednesday, three U.S. athletes will take the ring beginning with bantamweight Jesus Magdaleno (Las Vegas, Nev.). Magdaleno will battle Latvia's Dimitrijis Gutmans in his World Championships debut in morning competition. In afternoon action, it will be middleweight Terrell Gausha (Cleveland, Ohio), stepping the ropes for the first time in Milan as he faces Colombia's Alex David Theran Millares in preliminary round boxing. Lightweight Duran Caferro (Helena, Mont.) will close the day for the United States, taking on Thailand's Saylom Ardee in evening competition. 

Light flyweight Miguel Cartagena (Philadelphia, Pa.) and featherweight Kevin Rivers (Landover, Md.) will compete in their event openers on Thursday, September 3, facing Japan's Taro Hayashida and Australia's Ibrahim Balla respectively. 

Three United States boxers received first round byes and will all open competition on Sunday, September 6. Welterweight Errol Spence (Desoto, Texas) and light heavyweight Robert Brant (St. Paul, Minn.) both drew amateur boxing powerhouse Cuba in their first bout of the AIBA World Championships. Spence will face Carlos Banteur Suarez while Brant will take on Jose Larduet Gomez. Heavyweight Jordan Shimmell (Hudsonville, Mich.) will be the final U.S. boxer to take the ring, and he will face France's John M'Bumba on Sunday evening. 

For the most up-to-date results and information as well as full draw sheets for all 11 weight divisions, go to www.aiba.org.

USA Boxing, as the national governing body for Olympic-style boxing, is the United States' member organization of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) and a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). It is responsible for the selection and management of the United States Olympic Boxing Team, and for the governance and oversight of USA Boxing's national organization of 38,000 members, 1,400 individual boxing clubs, and 1,600 sanctioned events annually.