Paddy Barnes and Darren Sutherland have both been handed byes straight into the second round of the Olympic draw, significantly boosting the pair's medal prospects.
Barnes was the first of the Irish boxers to secure his place in Beijing and even before today's draw was seen as having an outside chance of a podium finish.
The 21-year-old Belfast light-flyweight will now need to win just two fights to claim a medal and has the added advantage of avoiding the world champion, China's Zou Shiming, until the semi-finals.
It's a similar story for Sutherland, but the middleweight will have his work cut out against Nabil Kassel of Algeria in the second round.
Skipper Kenny Egan (light-heavyweight), who will face Julius Jackson of the Virgin Islands in the first round, will be quietly confident after steering clear of many of the more fancied fighters until the latter stages.
John Joe Joyce (light-welterweight) and John Joe Nevin (bantamweight) will face Hungary's Gyula and Abdelhalim Ourradi of Algeria respectively.
Great Britain's boxing prospects, meanwhile, went from bad to worse with a nightmare draw to quickly follow Frankie Gavin's withdrawal due to weight problems yesterday.
None of Britain's seven remaining boxers will be entirely happy with today's proceedings with light-welterweight Bradley Saunders arguably handed the most favourable path towards the medal zone.