The Ladies take the Ring: Claressa Shields seeks another Gold; Katie Taylor is upset by Finland’s Potkonen

The Ladies take the Ring: Claressa Shields seeks another Gold; Katie Taylor is upset by Finland’s Potkonen
By: Matthew N. Becher

​The Women began fighting on Friday in three weight classes. The higher seeds mostly did what was predicted, with the biggest upset coming this morning when defending 60kg Lightweight Gold Medalist Katie Taylor, of Ireland, was defeated 2-1 by Finland’s Mira Potkonen.

​The next biggest fighter of the sport, American, Claressa Shields has been patiently waiting for her first fight as a #1 seed. She will take on Russian Iaroslava Iakushina on Wednesday.
Some things to remember in Women’s boxing. This is only the 2nd Olympics with the Women boxing in the games. There are not as many participants as the men, yet. Most of the top seeds have a direct spot, straight to the quarterfinals. Once more countries start competing, the rounds will expand. Also, the Women still wear headgear. This is the first time the men have gotten rid of the headgear in over 25 years. So we’ll see what happens as far as the Women go.
Here is how the other weight classes are stacking up so far.

Flyweight 48-51kg

On Friday, the Flyweights kicked things off, with Tetyano Kob of Ukraine, Mandy Bujold of Canada, Ingrit Valencia Victoria of Columbia and Sara Ourahmoune of France all advancing to the Quarter finals.

They will all compete tomorrow for a spot in the medal rounds.

The favorites in this division are Nicola Adams of Great Britain, Ren Cancan of China, Peamwilai Laopeam of Thailand and Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan.

Lightweight 57-60kg

The Lightweights also started last Friday with Mira Potkonen of Finland narrowly defeating the local Brazilian Adriana Araujo. Also advancing to today’s Quarterfinals were Chinas Junhua Yin, Mikaela Mayer of the United States and Italy’s Irma Testa.

So far, Mira Potkonen upset the reigning champion Katie Taylor of Ireland. While Junhua Yin also upset Yana Alekseevna of Azerbaijan to advance to the Medal rounds.

Later this afternoon, Irma Testa of Italy will match up against Estelle Mossely of France. And the fight to watch will be against Mayer of the US, as she squares up against Anastasiia Beliakova of Russia.

Middleweight 69-75kg

The Middleweights began their competition yesterday. Advancing were Iaroslava Iakushina of Russia, Dariga Shamikova of Kazakstan, Andreia Bandeira of Brazil and Savannah Marshall of Great Britain.
The division will continue on Wednesday with the Golden Girl Claressa Shields taking on the Russian Iakushina for a chance at history, with Shields vying to become a two time Olympic Gold Medalist.
Also fighting on Wednesday are Shakimova v. Khadija Mardi of Morocco, Bandeira of Brazil v. LI Qian of China and Marshall of Great Britain v. Nouchka Fontijn of The Netherlands.