Boxing Preview

The boxing tournament at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will have a little different look to it this year with 13 weight categories, eight for men and five for women. While Rio 2016 also had 13 weight categories, it featured 10 for men and three for women. 

The new men’s weight categories for these Games are: fly (48 kg. to 52 kg.), feather (52 kg. to 57 kg.), light (57 kg. to 63 kg.), welter (63 kg. to 69 kg.), middle (69 kg. to 75 kg.), light heavy (75 kg. to 81 kg.), heavy (81 kg. to 91 kg.) and super heavy (91 kg. to +91 kg.). 

The women’s weight categories are: fly (48 kg. to 51 kg.), feather (54 kg. to 57 kg.), light (57 kg. to 60 kg.), welter (64 kg. to 69 kg.) and middle (69 kg. to 75 kg.). 

The Tokyo Games will have an overall quota of 286 athletes being made up of 186 men and 100 women, compared to 250 men and 36 women at Rio 2016. 

Ten of those athletes will represent Team USA: Duke Ragan (featherweight), Keyshawn Davis (lightweight), Delante Johnson (welterweight), Troy Isley (middleweight) and Richard Torrez Jr. (super heavyweight) will compete on the men’s side while Virginia Fuchs (flyweight), Rashida Ellis (lightweight), Oshae Jones (welterweight), Yarisel Ramirez (featherweight) and Naomi Graham (middleweight) will take to the ring on the women’s side.

The U.S. has the most gold and most overall Olympic boxing medals all time, and is coming off three medals in 2016. Tokyo will mark just the third Olympic Games women’s boxing has been contested, with Team USA athletes winning three medals total between 2012 and 2016 — two golds and one bronze.

Updated on July 13, 2021. For more information, contact the sport press officer here.

• Virginia Fuchs, or Ginny as she is known by many, will get her long-awaited chance at the Olympic Games. Fuchs won the 2016 Olympic Team Trials for Boxing but missed qualifying to compete in Rio. Fuchs contemplated turning pro, but opted to go for Tokyo. In 2017, Fuchs went undefeated, 18-0, and won four international gold medals, and then won bronze a year later at the women’s world championships. Fuchs has battled through challenges with obsessive compulsive disorder, which she was diagnosed with in middle school, leading her to check into a rehabilitation center in March 2019. Once completed, Fuchs returned to the ring in April, winning the 2019 Pan American Games Qualifier and silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games. Fuchs, 33, continued her winning ways by taking gold at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Boxing and 2020 Strandja Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

• USA Boxing has had many boxers with a military background. However, Naomi Graham will be the first active female military member to represent Team USA at the Olympic Games in boxing. The staff sergeant, who is a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, joined the Army after spending some time homeless in her home state and was able to work her way onto the WCAP’s boxing team and eventually Team USA. Graham, 32, has made a name for herself internationally, winning seven international medals since 2018, including gold at the 2019 Pan American Games and bronze at the 2018 world championships.

• Richard Torrez Jr., 22, has been on many radars as a huge threat in the super heavyweight division. He has won numerous international tournaments, including the 2018 Chemistry Cup in his elite international debut, and the 2019 Strandja Tournament. He won bronze at the 2019 Pan American Games and placed fifth at his elite world championships debut the same year. Torrez Jr. is looking to be the first U.S. super heavyweight Olympic medalist since Riddick Bowe won silver in 1988. 

• Keyshawn Davis, 22, has caught the eye of many in the boxing world for his skills and personality inside the ring. Davis has been one of the most successful members of Team USA leading into Tokyo, winning numerous international medals, including silver medals at the 2019 Pan American Games and world championships. Davis has the opportunity to become the first American male lightweight medalist since Terrance Cauthen won bronze in 1996.

• Oshae Jones, 23, made history in 2019 with her gold-medal performance at the Pan American Games Lima 2019. Jones competed in the 69 kg. division, which was contested for the first time at the Pan American Games for female boxers. Jones will look to make history again, as her weight class is one of two new weight classes being contested in Tokyo. Jones also won gold medals at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Boxing and the 2020 Strandja Tournament.

• July 24, 2021: Olympic boxing begins with the Round of 32
• Aug. 3, 2021: Finals begin and continue through August 8