Two American boxers advanced to Friday’s finals with victories in Thursday’s semifinals as the US hopes to have two gold medalists for the second straight world championships. Claressa Shields made it look easy once again in the 75kg division where she defeated Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen 3-0 with all the judges once again scoring it a sweep. She’s joined in Friday’s finals by Shadasia Green who advanced to the +81kg final with a sweep of Turkey’s Sennur Demir.

For the other three Americans competing on Thursday things didn’t go so well and they will have to settle for bronze. Marlen Esparza lost to China’s Yuyan Wang in the 45-48kg division with all three judges seeing in 39-37. 2015 Golden Gloves champion Christina Cruz in the 54kg division lost 3-0 as well to Bulgaria’s Stoyka Petrova with one judge having it 40-36 and the other two at 39-37. Franchon Crews in the 81kg division had a more interesting bout with China’s Xialoi Yang as two judges had it 38-36 and one 39-35, a fight she was certainly in.

Previous 2016 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update
Friday Update
Saturday Update
Sunday Update
Monday Update
Tuesday Update