USA Knockouts vs. Morocco Atlas Lions
The USA Knockouts had a chance to lock up a spot in the playoffs last week when they faced the Mexico Guerreros in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Things did not go according to plan and after losing four of the five bouts the USA now needs to get a win against Morocco on Friday and help from group winners the British Lionhearts who are facing the Guerreros in Mexico on Saturday. If the USA wins and Mexico loses 4-1 or 5-0 the USA advances. If Mexico loses 3-2 and the USA wins 4-1 or 5-0 that would also be enough for the USA to advance. If Mexico loses 3-2 while the USA wins 3-2 that’s when things get complicated and the tiebreaker would take a bit of work to sort out.
Friday’s matchup is using the C2 weight classes (Flyweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, Light Heavyweight, and Super Heavyweight) where the USA split their two previous matches this year and the ten combined bouts. Morocco is winless this year but only lost 3-2 in both of the C2 matchups.
Friday’s matchups are… (season records in parentheses)
Flyweight – Antonio Vargas (1-0) vs. Achraf Kharroubi
Lightweight – Carlos Balderas (1-0) vs. Hamza Rabii
Welterweight – Paul Kroll (0-1) vs. Mohammed Rabii (1-0)
Light Heavyweight – Jonathan Esquivel (1-0) vs. Hassan Saada (1-0)
Super Heavyweight – Marlo Moore vs. Ahmed Bourous (0-1)
There is a free live stream of the match at http://www.dailymotion.com/worldseriesboxing with the action set to being at 8:30 PM ET. There is also a good preview of the bouts on the World Series of Boxing website.
Judo Grand Prix – Samsun
The Judo Grand Prix hits the Turkish town of Samsun this weekend and four American men and four American women will be taking part. On day one Angelica Delgado will be looking to advance past the Round of 32 in the -52kg division for the first time in 2016 while Aaron Kunihiro will try to do the same in the men’s -60kg division.
Later in the weekend the American lineup contains Travis Stevens, who finished second in Havana, competing on Saturday. Additionally Nina Cutro-Kelly, who was seventh in Havana, will compete on Sunday.
