Lekeisha Pergoliti, Chantelle Reid, Natalya Bogdanova and Aziza Zokirova are first boxers to secure a medal at World Boxing Championships 2025

Australia’s Lekeisha Pergoliti, Chantelle Reid from England, Natalya Bogdanova from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan’s Aziza Zokirova, are the first four boxers to win a medal at the World Boxing Championships 2025 in Liverpool.

The four women triumphed in their light-middleweight (W70kg) quarter finals to ensure that they will leave Liverpool with at least a bronze medal.

First to claim a medal was Pergoliti who defeated Ireland’s Lisa O’Rourke by the narrowest of 3-2 margins in a see-sawing contest in Ring A.

Seconds later England’s Chantelle Reid, secured victory in Ring B with a comprehensive unanimous points win over Mengge Zhang of China.  It sealed a remarkable turnaround for the Paris 2024 boxer who only returned to Olympic-style boxing eight weeks ago, having considered turning professional.

In the bouts that followed Bogdovana defeated Sema Caliskan of Turkey 5-0 to secure Kazakhstan’s first medal while Zokirova did the same for Uzbekistan as she cruised to a unanimous victory over Germany’s Leonie Mueller.

Speaking in the mixed zone after their bouts Pergoliti and Reid were delighted.

Pergoliti said: “That was a real hard fight. Very hard boxer. Very aggressive. I feel like I kept my composure, and that's what won me the fight.

“This means a lot to me. This is actually my first world championship and my first year being on the team. For the past two years, I've been number two. So I feel like I've really worked hard to get here. And I feel like it's really starting to pay off.

“I always want to be on top of that podium. But, Yeah, I'm just super stoked to be in the semis.”

Reid added: “It’s such a blessing and so grateful to be here. Just can’t thank GB enough for the preparation for this competition. And thank you to my corner, who’ve all been amazing so far and I can't wait to finish this competition with you.

“We’re going for gold. I can't see myself leaving the competition with anything less so I'm just going to put that work in. 

“I am grateful to be here and obviously for my primary school teacher for persuading me and encouraging me to come back to GB and go again for the next Olympics and try and get that gold medal I missed out on.

“I feel like I’m flying. I feel fast and strong at the weight. I am feeling amazing at 70kg.”

The quartet of medallists will fight it out in Saturday’s semi-finals.  Reid will take on Bogdanova and Pergoliti will tackle Zokirova.

The rest of the evening session featured 36 bouts across women’s light-flyweight (W48kg) and the men’s flyweight (M50kg), welterweight (M65kg) and cruiserweight (85kg) divisions.

The women’s light flyweight and men’s flyweight and welterweight competitions all went with the formbook as the top four seeds went through in all three categories.

Victories for Alejandro Claro Fiz at flyweight and Erislandy Alvarez at welterweight meant it was a better day for Cuba but they did not have it all their own way.  Claro Fiz had a battle to see of Hungary’s Istvan Szaka while Alvarez had to dig deep in his 3-1 victory over Almaz Orozbekov of Kyrgyzstan.

The evening session finished with eight cruiserweight bouts, that saw both top seeds exit the tournament as Kazakhstan’s number one ranked Bekzad Nurdauletov lost 3-2 to Georgia's Georgii Kushitashvili while Scotland’s Robert McNulty unanimously defeated India’s second seed Jugnoo Jugnoo. It also marked the end of the tournament for Aryan Saaed Panah who lost on a razor thin 3-2 split to Michael Fares Derouiche of Austria.

Earlier in the day, the morning session featured 29 bouts in the women’s flyweight (W51kg) and lightweight (W60kg) categories and the men’s bantamweight (M55kg) and light-heavyweight (80kg) divisions.

The men’s bantamweight contests went with form as seven of the eight top seeds progressed to the next round.

The only one to miss out was the number two ranked boxer, Javier Ibanez Diaz of Bulgaria who lost on a 3-2 split to Ireland’s Patsy Joyce, after an accidental clash of heads caused the referee to stop the contest after two round and go to the judges’ cards.  Provided he can overcome the nasty looking cut he received, Joyce will face Mirzizbek Mirzakhaliov of Uzbekistan in the quarter finals.

The standout performance in the bantamweight division came from Makhmud Sabrykhan of Kazakhstan who defeated Bashkim Bajoku of Kosovo with a first round knockout to set up a medal bout on Wednesday with Yamaguchi Rui of Japan.

Sabyrkhan’s knockout was one of several excellent performances in a very good session for the Kazakhstan team which won all four of its bouts. 

It included a strong performance by Viktoriya Erafeyeva at lightweight (W60kg), who scored a unanimous victory over the home nation’s Lucy Kings-Wheatley, and a convincing win at light-heavyweight (80kg) by Paris silver medallist and the competition’s number one seed, Nurbek Oralbay.

Faced with a tricky opponent in Tangiathan Tucohhetaerbieke of China, Oralbay came out of the blocks quickly in rounds one and two before easing off in the third as he cruised to unanimous 5-0 victory.  He will meet Javokhir Ummataliev of Uzbekistan in the quarter finals.

The early part of the first session saw the women’s flyweight category complete round of 16.  Turkey’s two-time Olympic silver medallist, Buse Naz Cakiroglu, impressed once again with a very convincing victory over Irismar Cardozo Rojas of Venezuela as she lived up to her status as the number one seed at 51kg. 

She will box India’s former two-time world champion Zareen Nikhat in what promises to be a mouthwatering clash in Wednesday’s quarter finals.

Tomorrow’s session (Wednesday 10 September) promises to be one of the most dramatic days of the whole competition and will feature 64 quarter final bouts, all of which have a medal at stake. The action will get underway at 12:00 BST.

RESULTS:

All of today’s results are available at: https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/competition-documents. 

INFORMATION:

The daily schedule, official draw and all results and additional information can be found on the event’s official website: https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/competition-documents. 

WATCH:

The World Boxing Championships 2025 is being livestreamed on World Boxing’s website via Eurovision Sport (available in selected territories) at https://worldboxing.org/watch-the-world-boxing-championships/.

LIVE SCORING:

Fans can stay up to date with all of the action in every session of boxing with live scoring at https://www.worldboxingliverpool.com/live-schedule-results

PHOTOS:

A free photo gallery of images from every session is available. Images can be downloaded directly for free - https://www.flickr.com/photos/203447206@N02/albums

SOCIAL MEDIA:

World Boxing will be posting updates throughout the competition on its social media channels:

·       Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/officialworldboxing/

·       X – https://x.com/RealWorldBoxing

·       Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWorldBoxing