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Friday 8th August
The Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony commences today at the National Stadium at 8:00 p.m. (1200GMT).

The official draw has now been announced on the AIBA website and you can view it by clicking here
Scottish heavyweight Stephen Simmons (below) has trained and competed alongside the seven boxers in the run-up to the Olympics and gives his views on the their first bouts of the draw and the opponents to watch out for...
51kg Khalid Yafai v Andris Laffita Hernandez (Cuba)
"Khal boxed Hernandez in February at the Strandja Cup in Bulgaria and lost after he was deducted points. I think Khal can beat the Cuban this time. He needs to watch out for World Champion Raushee Warren of the USA and Georgy Balakshin from Russia, who is the European Champion."
54kg Joe Murray v Yu Gu (China)
"Joe has boxed Yu Gu previously in China and lost. Yu Gu went on to become the gold medallist. In my opinion there wasn't much in it and Joe's come a long way since then, he beat Yu Gu in the Worlds after that, so I think he can beat him this time. Joe will need to keep an eye out for the Cuban, Yankiel Leon Alarcon, Russian Sergey Vodopyanov and Mongolian Enkbat Badar-Uugan, who beat him in the Worlds."
64kg Bradley Saunders v Kotey Samuel (Ghana)
"Bradley would probably have chosen this opponent from the draw himself. It's a good bout to ease him into the tournament and he shouldn't have any problems. In terms of challenging bouts, I'd say World Champion Serik Sapiyev of Kazakstan, Hungarian Gyula Kate, Romanian Ionut Gheorghe or European Champion Boris Georgiev of Bulgaria. Brad beat Vastine of France in the World Championships last year."
69kg Billy Joe Saunders v Adem Kilicci (Turkey)
"This is another good bout to ease into the tournament. Billy Joe has got some tough competition in his weight class. There's World Champion Demetrius Andarade from the USA, European Champion Andrey Balanov and the Ukrainian, Oleksandr Stretskyy, but Billy Joe's a winner and going on recent form I think he can win a gold medal."
75kg James DeGale v Mohamed Hikal (Egypt)
"The big danger in James's weight class is twice World Champion Matvey Korobov of Russia. His first opponent, Mohamed Hikal is an awkward opponent - the Egyptians often are, but I think he'll beat him."
81kg Tony Jeffries v Eleider Alvarez (Columbia)
"At this level of boxing there are no weak opponents, but when he's boxing at his best, Jaffa can beat anyone on this draw sheet. Imre Szello is a tough opponent, but Jaffa beat him in Poland and could beat him again. The other main competition is World Champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan and Russian Artur Beterbiev, European Champion."
91+kg David Price v Islam Timurziev (Russia)
""This is a hard draw for Dave, but I think he'll come out on top. He boxed a Belarussian at the last qualifiers in Athens who was twice Russian champion, and the Belarussians have a similar style to the Russians; coming forward and throwing lots of punches, so I see no reason why he can't do the same here."


