ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The Olympic boxing tournament begins Saturday with action scheduled in the middleweight and light-heavyweight classes.
Two-time world championship middleweight bronze medalist Yordani Despaigne-Herrera of Cuba will take part in one of the top bouts of the day.
He will meet Canadian Jean Pascal, who was a quarterfinalist at the 2001 world championship.
Sydney Olympic silver medallist Gayderbek Gayderbekov of Russia will also start his his medal quest against Christopher Camat of the Phillipines. Camat is a former U.S. amateur champion.
Andre Dirrell of the United States will meet Ha Dabateer of China in the first round of the middleweight class.
In the light-heavyweight division, Beibut Shumenov of Kazakhstan, who won a silver medal at an Athens Olympic tune-up tournament in May, will face Poland's Aleksy Kuziemski.
American Andre Ward will have a bye past the first round in the light-heavyweight division.
