Men’s World Boxing C’ships: Deepak, Nishant register dominating wins to enter quarter-finals

Tashkent (Uzbekistan): India’s Deepak Bhoria (51kg) and Nishant Dev (71kg) continued their scintillating forms at the ongoing IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships as they stormed into the quarter-finals of the tournament with dominating victories, here on Tuesday.

Playing against Jiamao Zhang of China in the pre-quarterfinal, Deepak controlled the bout right from the start and ended up winning it by a 5-0 unanimous decision.

Deepak had a measure of his opponent and called the shots in the first round with his Swift movement and accurate punches. He went into defensive mode at the start of the second round and used his counter-attacking game to strike some heavy left hooks on his opponent.

In the third round, Deepak was on his toes as Zhang tried to be more aggressive with a combination of punches. However, the Indian pugilist was too quick for his rival and comfortably won the bout.

“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. My focus is on the next bout now and I will give my 100 percent in it to ensure a medal for India,” said Deepak after the victory.

He will now play his next bout against Diushebaev Nurzhigit of Kyrgyzstan and will look to confirm a medal for India.

On the other hand, Nishant Dev registered a win by RSC in the first round against Nidal Foqahaa of Palestine.

Foqahaa used his height advantage to put Nishant Dev in the corner before the Indian pugilist used a combination of heavy punches on his opponent which forced the referee to stop the contest.

Nishant Dev will face Jorge Cuellar Of Cuba in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Two more Indian boxers will be in action later today. Sachin Siwach (54kg) will face top seed Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan, while Akash Sangwan (67 kg) will play against Kazakhstan’s Dulat Bekbauov.