Most of the semi-final bouts this afternoon in the AIBA World Championships entertained the crowd at the Mediolanum Forum with tight and open contests, but there was one notable exception. The first super-heavyweight clash, between Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle and Viktar Zuyeu of Belarus, was ended by the Italian in the first minute with a single straight left.
The damaging left jab destroyed his opponent completely and after the mandatory eight count Zuyeu's coach indicated with the white towel thez had seen enough. After the bout Cammarelle called his devastating left-hander a "Game Over" punch. In tomorrow's final he will meet Roman Kapitonenko of Ukraine, a surprisingly comfortable winner over Olympic silver medallist Zhilei Zhang.
Serdamba Purevdorj was the first boxer to reach the finals. The 24-year-old Mongolian light-flyweight beat Li Jiazhao of China 11-7. In the first round practically nothing happened, then the Mongolian dominated his Asian neighbour. In the other bout the 25-year-old David Ayrapetyan (favourite movie: Gladiator) of Russia deservedly beat Shin Jong Hun of Korea 9-1.
Detelin Dalakliev of Bulgaria, a pupil of the legendary flyweight Petar Lesov, the Olympic champion from Moscow 1980, convincingly beat Yankiel León of Cuba, the first seed in the 54kg weight class, 5-0. Meanwhile Eduard Abzalimov of Russia won a thrilling match against young John Nevin of Ireland, 5-4.
The technically superior lightweight Domenico Valentino - enjoying the support of the Milan crowd - displayed his skills against the Georgian southpaw Khoba Pkhakadze, and won his semi-final 15-2. He will now meet José Pedraza of Puerto Rico, who surprisingly beat Albert Selimov of Russia 9-5. Selimov is the reigning world and European champion at bantamweight.
The fans in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, are following the bouts live on a giant screen. "This is a great day in our country's boxing," Pedraza said. He is aiming to be only the second Puerto Rican amateur world champion in boxing history.
The 23-year-old Jack Culcay-Keth of Germany, born in Ecuador, used his experience to beat 19-year-old Botirjon Mahmudov of Uzbekistan and will now face the brilliant Russian 22-year-old Andrey Zamkovoy in the welterweight final. Zamkovoy, in the best match of the afternoon, dominated the twice light-welterweight world champion Serik Sapiyev of Kazakhstan to take an 8-0 lead, and although Sapiyev came back he could not close the gap and Zamkovoy ran out a 16-10 winner.
Two unbelievably strong boxers clashed in the first semi-final of the light-heavyweight division and Artur Beterbiev of Russia outpunched José Larduet of Cuba 10-6. The Chechen boxer's opponent in the final will be Uzbekistan's Elshod Rasulov, who beat Abdelkader Bouhenia of France 8-4.