American boxer Joseph Diaz, Jr. won the first boxing match of the 2012 London Olympic games Saturday, beating bantamweight Pavlo Ishchenko of Ukraine with a score of 19-9.
The 19-year-old from El Monte, Calif. will now move onto the round of 16, where he will fight top-seeded Cuban boxer Lazaro Alvarez Estrada on Wednesday. Alvarez, 21, beat Diaz last year at the world championships.
"I've fought him already and I'll have a different game plan," the young American southpaw said of his older rival. "This time around I'm going to give him a good fight."
Meanwhile, August 5 will mark the Olympic debut of women's boxing. While the men are broken into 10 weight categories from Light Fly Weight (100-108 lbs.) to Super Heavy Weight (over 200 lbs.), the women only have three weight classes: Fly, Light and Middle.
The United States has one women competing in each weight class this year, with all eyes on 28-year-old Light Weight Quanitta "Queen" Underwood's tough match-up against Brit Natasha Jonas.
The winner of that fight, airing Aug. 4 at 14:30 GMT, will then fight Ireland's Katie Taylor, who has beaten Underwood three times.
Also in boxing today, male fighters from Russia, Brazil, Ireland, Kazakhstan and Mexico advanced to the round of 16. Six more fights are scheduled for the afternoon.
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