Boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics: Weekend Preview

RETURNING RIVALS SHAPE POTENTIAL BLOCKBUSTER BATTLES

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Defending super heavyweight champion Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan placed in the same quarter as Australian Teremoana Junior after the boxing draws were revealed at the North Paris Arena on Thursday.

Uzbekistan's Jalolov, who is also the 2023 world and 2022 Asian Games champion, beat Teremoana en route to the gold medal at the World Championship in Tashkent last year.

The pair are set to renew their rivalry in the quarterfinals, which Teremoana is intent on winning: "If anyone's going to be worried, it'll be him, not me," Teremoana told reporters.

Another promising name in the category is Britain's Delicious Orie, who will be taking on Armenian Davit Chaloyan -- the 2021 world silver medalist -- in the preliminaries.

Julio Cesar La Cruz, champion in light heavyweight in the 2016 Rio Games and in heavyweight five years later in Tokyo, begins his quest for a third gold medal against Loren Alfonso of Azerbaijan. The Cuban will be competing in the heavyweight category.

Rio Olympics light flyweight gold medalist Hasanboy Dusmatov could meet Puerto Rico's Juanma Lopez in the second round of the flyweight category.