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How to WATCH Kurt Walker and Aoife O’Rourke fight for Olympic quarter-final places – Times and Details

Two Irish fighters compete for Olympic quarter-final places in their respective weight classes on Wednesday morning.

Kurt Walker and Aoife O’Rourke are both in what promise to be exciting and tense last 16 battles.

Canal BC’s Walker is up first and will be looking to build on his impressive round of 32 win over Jose Quiles Brotons.

To do that he will have to defeat the fighter deemed the best at the weight. Walker faces gold medal favourite, reigning World Amateur Champion, and the #1 seed for the tournament, Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov.

Castlerea fighter, Aoife O’Rourke has a tough but not impossible challenge in what is her Olympic debut.

O’Rourke starts against China’s Li Qian, a bronze medallist at Rio, the 2018 World Champion, and 2019 Asian champion. If the rapidly improving Roscommon boxer can catch the 31-year-old on the hop then it will be a medal bout most likely against Indian veteran Pooja Rani – who won the 2021 Asian Championships in Qian’s absence.

Walker takes to the ring in and around 4:30am, while O’Rourke will fight at the Kokugikan Arena at the more reasonable hour of 10:15am.

You can watch the fight on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

Tokyo Olympics

July 24th

Last 32
57kg Kurt Walker (Ireland) beat Jose Quiles (Spain) 5-0

July 25th

Last 32
81kg Emmet Brennan (Ireland) lost to Dilshod Ruzmetov (Uzbekistan) 0-5

July 26th
Last 32

52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) lost to Carlo Paalam (Philippines) 1-4

Last 16
57kg Michaela Walsh (Ireland) lost to Irma Testa (Italy) 0-5

July 27th
Last 16

69kg Aidan Walsh (Ireland) beat Albert Menque (Cameroon) 5-0

July 28th

Last 16

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Ireland) v Li Qian (China)
57kg Kurt Walker (Ireland) v Mirazizbek Mitzakhalilov (Uzbekistan)

July 30th
Last 16

60hk Kellie Harrington (Ireland) v Rebecca Nicoli (Italy) or Esmerelda Falcon (Mexico)

Quarter-final
69kg Aidan Walsh (Ireland) v Mervin Clair (Mauritius) or Hussein Eashash (Jordan)

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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