Boxing kicks off the Olympics at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday, alongside many other sports. The United States will have two boxers in competition on the first day of competition. In the lightweight preliminary, Carlos Balderas of Santa Maria, California will open competition for the United States in a bout with Kazakhstan’s Berik Abdrahkhmanov in the morning session on Saturday. In the evening, Nico Hernandez of Wichita, Kansas will face off against Italy’s Manuel Cappai in the light flyweight prelims.
Others in light flyweight competition that day include Galal Yafai of Great Britain vs. Fotsala Simplice of Cameroon; Patrick Lourenco of Brazil vs. Yuberjen Herney Martinez Rivas of Columbia; Artur Hovhannisyan (Armenia) vs. Samuel Carmona Heredia (Spain); Leandro Blanc (Argentina) vs. Joselito Velazquez Altamirano (Mexico) and Mathias Hamunylela (Namibia) vs. Rufat Huseynov (Azerbaijan)
In the lightweight division, audiences can look forward to Lindolfo Delgado (Mexico) vs. the first professional boxer to compete in the Olympics Carmine Tommasone (Italy). Other matchups include Luis Cabrera (Venezuela) vs. Daisuke Narimatsu (Japan); Hurshid Tojibaev (Uzbekistan) vs. Hakan Erseker (Qatar); Charly Suarez (Philippines) vs. Joe Cordina (Great Britain); and Anvar Yunusov (Tajikistan) vs. Shan Jun (China).
In the light heavyweight division, Mehmet Nadir Ünal of Turkey will likely move on to the next round via walkover (WO), due to the recent arrest of Morocco’s Hassan Saada for an alleged August 4 assault of two women. Other matchups in this division include Hrvoje Sep of Croatia vs. Abdelrahman Salah Araby of Egypt; Michel Borges (Brazil) vs. professional boxer Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (Cameroon); Erkin Adylbek Uulu (Kyrgyzstan) vs. Juan Carlos Carrillo Palacio (Columbia)
Finally in the smallest lineup of the day and the last matchups in their respective broadcasts, the men’s heavyweight division will have their first competitions. Juan Goncalves Nogueira (Brazil) will face Jason Whateley (Australia), and Lawrence Okolie (Great Britain) will face Igor Jakubowski (Poland) in the final match of the day.
Be sure to catch all of the day’s action on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.