Argentine lightweight boxer Lucas Villalba lost by points to Serbian Fedorov and was eliminated from the quarterfinals of the Amateur World Boxing Championship, which took place in Dubai, UAE, under the auspices of the International Boxing Association (IBA).
The native of La Matanza and representative of the José "Monito" Sosano Boxing School could not overcome the Serbian on the judges' scorecards, who unanimously awarded the victory to Fedorov and his advancement to the semifinals of the World Championship. Nevertheless, Villalba left a very good impression in the fight.
In the three rounds, Villalba tried to break the Serbian's defense with point-blank punches that could not penetrate precisely, so the European saw an opening in each of the Argentine's defenses and connected punches that the judges deemed more accurate than those of the Matancero.
Despite this, the Argentine fought until the end and was behind by just one point on each card, so although it was a unanimous decision, it was not a poor performance by Lucas, who left the Argentine team in a very good position for future competitions.
With this defeat, the Argentine Boxing Association (AAB) was left without representatives. In addition to Villalba (63.5 kg), Guillermo Freire (51 kg), Thomas Casazza (67 kg), and Matías Verón (92 kg) also participated in the World Championship.
Guillermo Freire (51 kg) was eliminated in the round of 16 after losing by points to the Turkish boxer Samet Gumus over three rounds. Thomas Casazza (67 kg) began the tournament with a unanimous decision victory over Greek Dimitrios Nikolaou, then defeated Australian Jake van Rooyen, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing by split decision to Azerbaijani Zaur Gahramanov, with a hand injury that affected his performance. Matías Verón (92 kg) won his first fight by unanimous decision against Indian Akash Kachari, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals after being knocked out in the second round by the naturalized Azerbaijani Cuban Loren Berto Alfonso Domínguez.
