Olympic Boxing Results: Day 11

Cuba always produces strong boxers for the Olympics, so it is perhaps unsurprising that Lightweight Yordenis Ugas bucked the prevailing trend and defeated Romanian Georgiaopescu by 11-7. His main rival for Gold is now Alexey Tischenko, who also advanced with an easy win over his Colomiban opponent. Daouda Sow of France felled hometown favorite Hu Qing by 9-6 to secure his semi-final berth, and Armenia's Javakhyan Hrachik got lucky when his Korean opponent was a no-show; Hrachik won by default.

In the Light Flyweights, Irishman Paddy Barnes defeated Pole Lukasz Maszczyk with a resounding 11-5 victory, while Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia scored another big, unexpected win by overthrowing Amnat Ruenroeng of Thailand. Purevdorj defeated Luis Yanez of the US team in the previous round of competition.

The other two Light Flyweight berths were filled when Zou Shiming, now the overwhelming favorite to win Gold in this division, beat his Kazakh opponent. The only man who might stop Shiming from winning a Gold before an adoring crowd of his own countrymen is Yampier Hernandez of Cuba, who swamped Paulo Carvalho of Brasil by 21-6.

In Light Heavyweight action, another Chinese boxer advanced to the medal rounds in the form of Zhang Xiaoping, who beat Abdelhafid Benchabla of Algeria by a clear 12-7. Meanwhile, Briton Tony Jefferies scored a solid 10-2 victory over Imre Szello of Hungary, dominating the bout with a hard jab and forcing Szello to take a standing eight count in the 4th and final Round.

Also in Light Heavyweight, Yerkebulan Shynaliyev of Kazakhstan defeated his opponent from neighboring Tajikistan. Finally, in the day's second big win for Ireland, Kenny Egan whipped Washington Silva of Brasil in an 8-0 shut out.

Tomorrow will be the last day of Beijing's boxing quarter-finals, featuring action in the Flyweights and Middleweights. The Athens Welterweight Gold Medalist, Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan, has moved up to Middleweight for the Beijing Olympics, and is expected to get past his August 20th opponent handily. However, medal favorites have been plauged by upsets through this session of Olympic boxing, so anything could happen. Another boxer to watch is Walid Cherif of Tunisia, who scored the beat Lee Ok-sung of South Korea, the man who in his turn defeated reignin World Amateur Champ Rau'shee Warren of the United States. The hard-punching Irish team also has a chance to advance a third fighter into the medal rounds with Middleweight Darren John Sutherland.

Sources: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/boxing/n214565201.shtml; http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/BX_2008-08-19.shtml; BBC, Jefferies Powers to Boxing Medal; live coverage on CNBC