Team USA earned five more wins on Thursday at the 2026 World Boxing Futures Cup in Bangkok, Thailand. The United States saw four boxers advance to the quarterfinals, one boxer advance to the semifinals, and one boxer earn a bronze medal on day five of competition.<\/p>\n
Earning the first win of the day was Brijhana Epperson (women\u2019s 57 kg | Kansas City, Mo.), defeating China\u2019s Mengxue Wu. Epperson dug deep late in the bout and overcame a 2-1 deficit heading into the final round. Epperson showed incredible resilience and dominated the third round 5-0 to secure the 3-2 victory. She now advances to the quarterfinals, where she will face France\u2019s Shanon Cabane on Friday in Session 1, Ring A, Bout 3, at approximately 6:30 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
After Epperson, Christian Paez (men\u2019s 55 kg | San Antonio, Texas) secured his third victory of the event after defeating Azerbaijan\u2019s Nihat Gasimov by a 4-1 split decision. Paez won every judge\u2019s vote in the first two rounds and will now advance to the quarterfinals, where he will face Spain\u2019s Manuel Bueno on Friday in Session 1, Ring B, Bout 10, at approximately 2:15 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Right after Paez, Asante Lamar (men\u2019s 70 kg | Cincinnati, Ohio) stepped into the ring and dominated from start to finish before earning a unanimous decision victory over Japan\u2019s Kenshiro Moko. Lamar won every judge\u2019s vote in all three rounds and earned one 10-8 card in the second round. He will now square off with Kazakhstan\u2019s Bibarys Ashirbay in the quarterfinals on Friday in Session 1, Ring A, Bout 11, at approximately 2:30 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Making her international and tournament debut on day five was Marley McNealy (women\u2019s 70kg | San Francisco, Calif.). The California native went down 5-0 after the first round against Uzbekistan\u2019s Maftuna Yangieva, but responded by winning the second round 3-2 to enter the final round down 2-0. McNealy carried the momentum into the final round, landing multiple right hooks on Yangieva and winning the round 4-1 to ultimately secure the bout via a 3-2 split decision. McNealy will now advance to the semifinals and is guaranteed a medal. She will face Kazakhstan\u2019s Kamila Ospanova on Saturday, March 14.<\/p>\n
Asaan Jenkins (men\u2019s 65 kg | Washington, D.C.) earned Team USA\u2019s final win of the day in his second appearance of the week. The Washington D.C. native earned his second unanimous decision victory, this time over Armenia\u2019s Suren Katvalyan. Jenkins was down 3-2 after the first round, but was lights out in the second and third rounds, winning every judge\u2019s vote in the final six minutes, including a 10-8 in the third round after delivering two 8-counts to Katvalyan. Jenkins will now face Morocco\u2019s Houssam Boucheta in Friday\u2019s quarterfinals in Session 2, Ring B, Bout 10, at approximately 8:15 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Team USA also had Ciana Nonhphala (women\u2019s 48 kg | Providence, R.I.), Kaylee Aguilar (women\u2019s 60 kg | Houston, Texas), Ruby Lopez (women\u2019s 51 kg | Napa, Calif.), James Gentile (men\u2019s 75 kg | Staten Island, N.Y.), Hadi Almashhadi (men\u2019s 80 kg | Taylor, Mich.), and Caleb Reid (men\u2019s 90+ kg | Palm Bay, Fla.) compete on Thursday; however their respective journeys 2026 World Boxing Futures Cup concluded following their defeats. Reid secured Team USA\u2019s first medal of the tournament, a bronze medal, marking the first international medal of his young career.<\/p>\n
Team USA will see six boxers in action Friday, including four winners from Thursday\u2019s slate. Guadalupe Ruiz (women\u2019s 54 kg | Anaheim, Calif.) will return to the ring and will face Egypt\u2019s Hajer Wahba, and Team Captain Lauryn Elmore (women\u2019s 65 kg | Sacramento, Calif.) will make her tournament debut against Kazakhstan\u2019s Aisulu Mukhit.<\/p>\n
The USA Boxing Youth High Performance Team is led by National Development Coach Edward Fonteneaux (Fayetteville, N.C.). Fonteneaux will be assisted throughout the tournament by High Performance Pool coaches, including Holly Gregson (Idaho Falls, Idaho), Jason Hamilton (Spanaway, Wash.), Yessenia Montalvo (Bloomfield, N.J.), and Ronald Wright (Columbus, Ga.).<\/p>\n
Additional tournament information for the 2026 World Boxing Futures Cup, including the tournament draw, daily bout sheets, results, tournament updates, and more, will be uploaded to the event page on the USA Boxing website, where followers can find the 2026 World Boxing Futures Cup event page.<\/p>\n
Thursday, March 12 | Results:<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 48 kg: Ciana Nonhphala vs. Gular Huseynova, AZE | L 3-0<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 57 kg: Brijhana Epperson vs. Mengxue Wu, CHN | W 3-2<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 60 kg: Kaylee Aguilar vs. Rushanabonu Isoeva, UZB | L 5-0<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 55 kg: Christian Paez vs. Nihat Gasimov, AZE | W 4-1<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 70 kg: Asante Lamar vs. Kenshiro Moko, JPN | W 5-0<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 51 kg: Ruby Lopez vs. Chandrika Bhoreshi Pujari, IND | L 5-0<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 75 kg: Marley McNealy vs. Maftuna Yangieva, UZB | W 3-2<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 65 kg: Asaan Jenkins vs. Suren Katvalyan, ARM | W 5-0<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 75 kg: James Gentile vs. Suhrob Rakhmatullaev, UZB | L 5-0<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 80 kg: \u00a0Hadi Almashhadi vs. Warren Tchoff, FRA | L 5-0<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 90+ kg: Caleb Reid vs. Vladislav Samozhonov, KAZ | L (RSC-I)<\/p>\n
Friday, March 13 | Schedule:<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 54 kg: Guadalupe Ruiz vs. Hajer Wahba, EGY<\/p>\n
Session 1 | Ring B | Bout 4 | Red Corner | Approximately 12:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 55 kg: Christian Paez vs. Manuel Bueno Jodar, ESP<\/p>\n
Session 1 | Ring B | Bout 10 | Red Corner | Approximately 2:15 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 70 kg: Asante Lamar vs. Bibarys Ashirbay, KAZ<\/p>\n
Session 1 | Ring A | Bout 11 | Red Corner | Approximately 2:30 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 57 kg: Brijhana Epperson vs. Shanon Cabane, FRA<\/p>\n
Session 2 | Ring A | Bout 3 | Red Corner | Approximately 6:30 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 65 kg: Lauryn Elmore vs. Aisulu Mukhit, KAZ<\/p>\n
Session 2 | Ring A | Bout 5 | Red Corner | Approximately 7:00 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 65 kg: Asaan Jenkins vs. Houssam Boucheta, MAR<\/p>\n
Session 2 | Ring B | Bout 10 | Red Corner | Approximately 8:15 a.m. ET<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team USA earned five more wins on Thursday at the 2026 World Boxing Futures Cup in Bangkok, Thailand.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-532090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}