Canada is guaranteed a medal in the women’s 80 kilograms at the 2025 World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England. On Wednesday, Viktoria Penney of Toronto, Ontario defeated Qimeng Zhong of China in the quarterfinals of the women’s 80 kilogram division. Penney was victorious when the referee decided to stop the contest.
Penney will next face Eseta Flint of Australia in one of two semifinals. The other semifinal will have Emily Asquith of England versus Pooja Rani of India. The semifinals will both take place on Saturday, with Penney facing Flint at 1pm MT. The winners of the semifinals will then face each other in the gold medal bout on Sunday at 12:30 pm MT. Due to the fact there is no bronze medal bout, the losers of the semifinals will win bronze.
What is crazy about the World Boxing Championships is the fact that Penney did not have a single match until Wednesday, as she received a bye to the quarterfinals. She then will not have her semifinal bout until Saturday, and then will have an extremely short turn around if she is victorious next. What is equally strange and bizarre is the fact that Penney was guaranteed a medal at the World Championship after winning only one fight.