BEIJING — On the eve of his first bout in his second Olympic stint, lone Pinoy boxing bet Harry Tañamor weighed some 400 grams over the limit, making boxing president Manny Lopez nervous and fidgety.

Lopez, however, had been told not to worry.

The assurance came from Cuban coach Enrique Tissert, who told Lopez "to just relax and not to be nervous" as he prepared Tañamor for his opening match against Manyo Plange of Ghana Wednesday night in the penultimate bout of a 13-match program in the light-flyweight division of the 29th Olympics here.

"Sinabi niyang huwag akong matakot maski bahagyang overweight si Harry. He told me he has prepared the boy very well," Lopez said, referring to Tissert, the Cuban coach hired early this year to handle the training of the country’s only representative in boxing.

A veteran of the 2004 Athens Games, Tañamor, 30, did a light workout with the mitts Tuesday "for timing and coordination and simulating time of competition for body rhythm and adjustments" under the watchful eyes of Tissert and assistant coach Pat Gaspi.

The coaching staff is confident Harry will have no trouble making the 48-kilogram limit when the 29 entries in the class, described by Lopez as one of the most competitive in the 13-division event, take to the weighing scale starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

"He’ll make the weight tomorrow (today)," assured Tissert, one of the long line of coaches credited for Cuba’s dominating performance in Olympic boxing where it has won a total of 20 gold medals so far.

Tañamor has not crossed paths with Plange before. The Ghanian competed in the flyweight division in the World Championship in Chicago last year, losing in the first round, and opted to try the light-flyweight class this time.

"Hindi ko pa siya nakikita at nakakalaban. Bahala na ang mga coaches ko," Tañamor told a Filipino sportswriter who chanced upon him taking a light snack Monday afternoon at the Athletes Village.

Plange is also being handled by a Cuban coach, Robert Ibanez Chavez, who was so impressed with the Ghanian he had predicted anybody fighting his ward would be in trouble. Tissert just smiled after being told of Chavez’s words.

Plange lost to Kenya’s Suleiman Bilali in the finals of the ninth All-African Games after undergoing an intensive training, using old car tires as improvised punching bags.

In Chicago qualifier, Tañamor advanced all the way to the gold medal match against Zou Shiming of China who prevailed 17-3. The silver medal finish earned Tañamor his ticket here.

Shiming fights Vene-zuela’s Eduard Salas Bermudez as the Chinese opens his bid to give China its first gold medal in Olympic boxing. Four years ago in Athens, he won a bronze medal.

To almost everyone here, Shiming is the Yao Ming or Xi Jiang in boxing. He is the finest Chinese fighter to emerge since the Mainland returned to the Olympics during the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Tañamor, almost 10 years older than Plange, meets either Paulo Carvalho or Redouane Bouchtouk of Morocco in the round of 16 if he hurdles the Ghanaian.