Boxing at Paris 2024 Olympics: Ngamba and Harvey among five fighters to look out for

Follow the latest news on the <a href="https://are01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fsport%2Folympics%2F2024%2F07%2F26%2Flive-2024-paris-olympics-opening-ceremony%2F&data=05%7C02%7CALewis%40thenationalnews.com%7Cf54392b21e7740180e9908dcad5f4871%7Ce52b6fadc5234ad692ce73ed77e9b253%7C0%7C0%7C638575871975001879%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DT7DVAfC%2Fxh4Yviiwjjwd51TxznpROjOD%2FIBVFVcpY4%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank"> 2024 Paris Olympics Boxing at the Olympics seems to be perennially under threat, so each time the competition rolls around there is the very real possibility of it being the last. Some of the most famous boxers in history made their name at the Olympics, from Muhammad Ali through Sugar Ray Leonard to Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko, and even current heavyweight kingpins like Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk . A total of 249 fighters – 125 male and 124 female – will compete in boxing at Paris 2024 , from July 27 until August 10. They qualified from an original pool of 2,000 boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees, the IOC Refugee Olympic Team and Individual Neutral Athletes that took part in the 'Boxing - Road to Paris' qualification series, totalling 2,115 bouts across five continents in the past two years. The Paris 2024 boxing tournament will include 13 different weight categories, seven men’s and six women’s, and be staged at Roland Garros – home of French Open tennis – and the North Paris Arena at Villepinte. Below we pick out five exciting fighters to check out during the upcoming fortnight. The UK-based boxer Cindy Ngamba heads to Paris with the dream of becoming the first athlete to win a medal for the Refugee Olympic Team. In June's qualifiers, Ngamba became the first refugee boxer to independently secure a spot at the Olympics with victory over Kazakhstan’s Valentina Khalzova in the women’s 75kg category. Ngamba was born in Cameroon and moved to the UK aged 11. Since then she has faced a battle to stay in her adopted homeland and has spoken of her struggles, including being sent to a detention centre over administrative issues. She now looks set to be part of a thriving women's boxing scene where amateur success is steadily transferring into professional rewards. A medal in Paris and the future will look extremely bright for Ngamba, an athlete who has had to fight for everything she has. She told the Olympic Channel: “I just look at the time when I had a hard time in life, my papers, coming to the UK, the language barrier and the tough times that I faced when I first came to the UK. I think about if I was able to overcome those times then I can overcome any situation and anyone in the world can overcome anything. “I dream about [winning gold] sometimes and I visualise it for it to actually come into reality. I’d be speechless, I’d be lost for words. I would even know where to start.” At two metres in height and around 120kg in weight, Australian Teremoana Junior puts the super in super-heavyweight. The 26-year-old will make his Olympic debut at Paris 2024 and is considered a dark horse for a medal after his defeat of Elvino Maroulis to become the Australian champion. Teremoana is of Cook Islands heritage and first boxed at the age of 12. He was introduced to the sport by his father, but it wasn’t until the loss of his grandfather in 2018 that he seriously considered boxing as a career. “After I turned 21, I just looked at everything and thought, ‘Nah, stuff this, I’m going to give it a go, give it a crack, because what can you lose?’,” he told the official Olympics website. These days Teremoana has linked up with the Aussie boxing stable of promoter Mick Francis. The 'Tasman Fighters' gym already has one professional world champion in the shape of cruiserweight belt holder Jai Opetaia. Teremoana is an aggressive and exciting watch and has been drawn against the Ukrainian Dmytro Lovchynskyi in the opening round. Lovchynskyi will have unified heavyweight champion Usyk backing him up as part of Team Ukraine. If he wins his opener then it is likely he will meet Tokyo 2020 champion and overwhelming gold medal favourite Bakhodir Jalolov in a must-watch bout. Uzbekistan's Jalolov beat Teremoana in the 2023 World Championships and the Aussie is desperate for revenge. The 25-year-old Italian with Moroccan heritage, Aziz Mouhiidine, is a European champion and a two-time world silver medallist at heavyweight (92kg). That pedigree means he will be a dangerman in Paris in a stacked division. Born to a Moroccan father and Italian mother, Mouhiidine says he has benefitted from growing up in a multicultural home. "My parents have always respected each other’s cultures and taught me so much about both. I started boxing thanks to my father, we watched the film about Muhammad Ali starring Will Smith for the first time together. Then I understood that I wanted to become a great boxer and a great person like him," Mouhiidine said. Mouhiidine has honed his craft as a sparring partner for top professionals and has pro dreams of his own after a crack at gold this summer. His style is slick, languid and easy on the eye. "I was the sparring partner of both Mairis Briedis and Anthony Joshua, and it was a unique and truly amazing experience. With this, I started to approach the world of professional boxing and my goal is to go professional after Paris," he said. "Now, my goal will be to win the Olympic gold medal in Paris. I have been preparing for this competition all my life and I will be ready." If Mouhiidine is to win gold then he will have to do it the hard way after being drawn against the tough Uzbek Lazizbek Mullojonov up first, not to mention being in the same division as amateur boxing royalty. Cuba's Julio Cesar La Cruz is the most decorated active amateur in the world. The 34-year-old won gold at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, as well as a hugely impressive five world championship titles. A third Olympic gold this summer will see him join compatriots Felix Savon and Teofilo Stevenson on the honour roll. No country has won more Olympic medals in boxing than the USA, but incredibly they haven't landed a gold since Andre Ward in 2004. Although, missing out on gold hasn't always been a curse for US boxing talent – ask Roy Jones Jr (1988) and Floyd Mayweather (1996) who were both robbed of glory by egregious judging. Among those looking to end that surprising sequence in Paris will be Jahmal Harvey. Featherweight Harvey, 21, previously won gold at the 2021 World Championships and at the 2023 Pan-Am Games. He is considered Team USA's best bet for gold. He certainly isn't lacking in confidence, as he told Boxing Scene : "My name was always known overseas; all the countries, most of the coaches and fighters knew me. "I feel like I'm definitely one of the top dogs at featherweight coming into the Olympics. I want [gold] bad. To become an Olympic gold medallist, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I’m going to be working real hard, putting my body on the line, just pushing myself." To be fair to Harvey, he has all the talent to back up those words. Perhaps his biggest rival at featherweight is the Uzbekistani boxer Abdumalik Khalokov. Uzbekistan has been a talent factory for boxers for some time now and they look to have another strong team in Paris, with the exciting Ruslan Abdullaev joined by the likes of Khalokov, Jalolov and Hasanboy Dusmatov at 51kg. Abdullaev is the reigning world champion in the 63.5kg division after beating Mongolia's Baatarsukhiin Chinzorig in the final in Tashkent last year. In Paris, he has a bye in the first round and will face the Mexican Miguel Angel Martinez Ramirez in his first bout at the last-16 stage. Should they both progress to the semi-finals, he could meet home favourite and French medal hope Sofiane Oumiha, himself an amateur European and world champion and a silver medallist in Rio in 2016

Boxing at Paris 2024 Olympics: Ngamba and Harvey among five fighters to look out for

Competition gets going in French capital on Saturday and will run until August 11