Buenos Aires, December 7 (NA) -- Argentine boxer Lucas Villalba won by split decision against Kenyan Caleb Wandera and advanced to the quarterfinals in the middleweight category at the Amateur Boxing World Championship organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA), taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In the next round, the La Matanza native will face the winner of the bout between Serbian Padel Fedorov and Ugandan Farahati Manilola.
The boxer from Laferrere began the World Championship in the round of 16 in his weight class.
Lucas Villalba secured the victory by split decision of the judges.
Video: Agency NA (IBA Press).
How Argentina is faring in the World Championship
For the round of 16, Matías Verón will face the Cuban competing for Azerbaijan, Loren Alfonso Domínguez, on Monday, December 8, starting at 10:00 AM in Ring A. This will be a tough rival, as he won two medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (bronze) and Paris 2024 (silver), and was also an IBA amateur champion in Belgrade 2021 and silver medalist in Tashkent 2023.
Finally, also on Monday, December 8, Thomas Casazza will continue his winning streak after two previous victories over Greek Dimitrios Nikolaou and Australian Jake van Rooyen. He will face Azerbaijani Zaur Gahramanov in the quarterfinals starting at 10:00 AM in Ring B.
How the tournament works
The World Championship began this Thursday, December 4, with preliminary bouts, and will continue until December 11, featuring the round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals across 13 different weight categories.
The tournament is covered by Noticias Argentinas Agency.
The boxer from the "Monito" Sosa Boxing School had a tough first round; he even fell after stumbling during a retreat, which caused him to lose points. He also took several punches from the Kenyan. Nevertheless, he knew how to recover and attacked fiercely to not fall too far behind in the judges' decision.
In the second round, he was able to control the pace a bit more and was not pressured by his opponent, who in turn seemed more rushed and imprecise. In the final round, he worked more on dodges and clinches to protect the result in his favor, and even managed to make the African wobble.
Finally, after the review and split decision by the judges, Villalba secured the victory and advanced to the tournament quarterfinals.
The grand final in each weight class will be on Saturday, December 13, at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.
The prize structure includes $150,000 for the runners-up, $75,000 for the third-place finishers, and $10,000 for those who finish fifth, with a distribution that includes the boxer, the coaches, and the national federations.
