All twenty-two
semifinal bouts will be contested at the Olympics in Athens on Friday and eight Cubans are striving for gold in the
eleven weight classes. One of them, three-time Olympian Lorenzo Aragon faces Jung Joo Kim of Korea, and if he wins,
it could set up what could be considered a battle to determine the world’s best amateur pound-for-pound against
two-time gold medallist Oleg Saitov of Russia. On Monday, Aragon squeaked into the semifinals with a two-point
victory, while Saitov won an eight-point decision and now faces Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan. Another interesting
weight class is lightweight, where Mario Kindelan of Cuba bids for a second gold medal first against Russian Murat
Khrachev and then against the winner of Serik Yeleuov of Kazakhstan and Amir Khan, a teenager representing Great
Britain. At super heavyweight, after conquering American hope Jason Estrada on Monday, Cuban Michael Lopez finds
himself matched up against an Egyptian with an intimidating boxing name, Mohammed Aly. The other half of the super
heavyweight bracket pits Alexander Povetkin of Russia against Roberto Cammarelle, who succeeds Paolo Vidoz as an
Italian medalist.