World Boxing Championships: Boxers make India proud with 3 bronze
Tashkent, May 12
Deepak Bhoria, Mohammad Hussamuddin and Nishant Dev signed off with bronze medals at the IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships, wrapping up India’s best-ever show at the marquee event here today.
It was heartbreak for Hussamuddin as the Nizamabad boxer was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury about an hour before semifinals bout in the his 57kg category.
On the other hand, Deepak’s (51kg) memorable campaign came to end as he went down 3-4 to two-time World Championships bronze medallist Bilal Bennama of France in a contest decided by a bout review.
Nishant’s (71kg) semifinal also went to a bout review with the judges ruling in favour of the 2022 Asian Championships champion and 2018 Asian Games silver medallist Aslanbek Shymbergenov of Kazakhstan in their.
Deepak falls short
Deepak and Bennama were tentative in the beginning, trying to get the measure of each other. Deepak was able to land a few punches but Bennama used his left jabs to great effect and took the round 3-2.
Bennama was the aggressor in the second round as he moved around the ring to dodge Deepak’s punches but the Indian breached his defence at regular intervals and hit some eye-catching right crosses.
The final round was fought intensely but the Frenchman was successful in blocking Deepak’s blows to take the round.
Earlier, the 29-year-old Hussamuddin sustained a knee injury in his quarterfinals bout against J Diaz Ibanez of Bulgaria and decided against risking aggravation. “Hussamuddin gives a walkover due to injury and settles for bronze. He had a knee injury in the last bout after which he had pain and swelling,” Boxing Federation of India stated.
