Boxing World Championships: Deepak Bhoria, Nishant Dev punch last-8 tickets; Sachin, Akash out
Tashkent, May 9
Indian boxers Deepak Bhoria and Nishant Dev notched dominating wins to cruise into the quarterfinals of the IBA Men’s Boxing World Championships here today.
Continuing his good run in the tournament, Deepak brushed aside China’s Zhangh Jiamao by a 5-0 unanimous verdict in a 51kg category Round-of-16 bout.
Nishant, on the other hand, hardly broke a sweat as he registered a first-round RSC (referee stops contest) win against Palestine’s Foqahaa Nidal in his 71kg category last-16 contest. Such was Nishant’s domination that he spent less than two minutes in the ring before being declared the winner.
The Indian southpaw resorted to body blows before striking Nidal with a powerful right hook that compelled the referee to give the Palestinian his first standing count.
A few seconds later Nishant unleashed a combination of left-right-left hooks as Nidal fell on the canvas, forcing the referee to give him his second count before stopping the contest.
Deepak, too, put up a brilliant display once again.
While the first round was neck-and-neck, with both boxers exchanging blows, the 25-year-old Indian managed to take a slender 3-2 lead.
The Haryana boxer ramped up the tempo in the next two rounds. Deepak used his nimble foot to move around the ring, landing a combination of punches while also ducking away from his opponent’s attacks rather effortlessly.
“My strategy was to use my strongest weapon in the match which is my left hook and everything went according to our plan in the match. I tried to get the momentum early in the bout and lure my opponent before striking some accurate punches,” Deepak said.
Meanwhile, Sachin Siwach (54kg) and Akash Sangwan (67kg), however, were knocked out of the competition. Both boxers went down by a similar 5-0 margin to Kazakh pugilists. While Sachin was ousted by top seed Makhmud Sabyrkhan, Akash was sent packing by Dulat Bekbauov.
