The US continued their good start to the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan with three more victories on Friday. 2012 gold medalist Claressa Shields in the 75kg division competed in the evening and cruised to victory getting a TKO of her opponent Sarah Scheurich of Germany at the 2nd minute of the 4th round, already ahead big on the judges scorecards. Earlier in the day Stalacia Leggett in the 57kg division had a really interesting bout with Chinese Taipei’s Hsiao-Wen Huang. One judge scored the fight a clean four round sweep for Huang while another had it tied. The third just scored it 39-37, but for Leggett. The judge that had it tied would determine the winner and had Leggett as the preferred winner, giving her the victory. Not real common you win a bout in which one judge had it a sweep for your opponent. 19-year-old Jajaira Gonzalez didn’t need any judges at all as she scored a TKO at 1:43 of the 3rd round.

Saturday will be the second bouts for Virginia Fuchs in the 51kg division and Mikaela Mayer in the 60kg division. The other five US boxers, Marlen Esparza in the 45-48kg division, 2015 Golden Gloves champion Christina Cruz in the 54kg division,  Naomi Graham in the 69k division, Franchon Crews in the 81kg division, and Shadasia Green in the +81kg division, are still waiting for their first bouts as they are competing in divisions that have smaller numbers of boxers and didn’t need as many preliminary bouts.

Preliminaries continue Saturday and run through Monday to narrow the field in each weight class to eight for Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

Previous 2016 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update