Meet the Top Ranked Ukrainian Boxers for the upcoming summer Olympics boxing tournament
The Ukrainian Olympic boxing team at London 2012 is loaded. There may be bigger teams in terms of membership at the summer Olympics boxing tournament – the USA boxing team has 9 members, for instance – but there may not be any other squad out there with the potential to bring home as much winning hardware.
At the 2011 World Championships, the Ukraine boxing team brought home a staggering four gold medals, plus a silver for good measure, out of a total of 10 weight classes. Not too shabby. In addition to those five men, two more Ukrainian boxers made the cut for the Olympic lineup.
Here’s a complete look at the Ukrainian boxing team for the London Olympics. Don’t forget to check out our Olympic boxing homepage for more in-depth, exclusive coverage.
- Pavlo Ishchenko – Bantamweight: The 20-year-old bantamweight earned his ticket to the Olympics with a silver medal at the European qualifying tournament, the only man on the team who wasn’t already on the squad after the world championships in Baku. Bantamweight is one of the toughest divisions in the tournament with the likes of Cuban Lazaro Alvarez and Luke Campbell of Britain, so he’s in tough here.
- Vasyl Lomachenko – Lightweight: Lomachenko is the man at lightweight. Not only did he win a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics – at featherweight – but he was the tournament’s outstanding fighter, winning the Val Barker Cup. In addition, he’s a two-time world champion, most recently taking out Italy’s Domenico Valentino and the USA’s Jose Ramirez en route to his gold in 2011.
- Denys Berinchyk – Light Welterweight: Denys Berinchyk is a strong medal threat in the light welterweight division. He took home silver at the 2011 Worlds, beating Rosniel Iglesias of Cuba, the frontrunner, in the early rounds to do so.
- Taras Shelestyuk – Welterweight: The reigning World Champion at welterweight, he’s also the number 1 ranked fighter currently by the AIBA. He’s the prohibitive favorite to bring home the gold in this weight division.
- Ievgen Khytrov – Middleweight: Like Shelestyuk, Ievgen (or Evhen) Khytrov is a 2011 World Champion, and the number 1 ranked fighter in the world in his weight class. At 23-years-old, he’ll be the frontrunner at the London games.
- Oleksandr Gvozdyk – Light Heavyweight: Gvozdyk didn’t medal at the 2011 Worlds, but did enough to qualify. He won three fights before losing to Russia’s Egor Mekhontsev, who ended up with a bronze, after taking home gold in 2009. Gvozdyk will be an outsider looking in against the rest of the crowd, including Cuba’s Julio Cesar La Cruz.
- Oleksandr Usyk – Heavyweight: After taking home a bronze at the 2009 Worlds, he improved his game and won gold in 2011. The reigning World Champion is a strong medal contender at London, and will have to fight off challenges from the likes of China’s Wang Xuanxuan.
