World Championships: Late charge takes Deepak Bhoria into last-16

Tashkent, May 7

Fast-rising Indian boxer Deepak Bhoria fashioned a brilliant comeback to stun Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan and advance to the 51kg pre-quarterfinals of the men’s World Championships here today.

Trailing after the opening two rounds, Deepak, who was selected ahead of World Championships silver medallist Amit Panghal, put up a stellar display in the last three minutes to emerge the winner after a bout review. The Indian eventually won 5-2 against the 2021 world champion Bibossinov.

Two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin registered a facile 5-0 victory over Russia’s Eduard Savvin to advance to the quarterfinals of the 57kg category. He will go up against Bulgaria’s Javier Diaz Ibanez next.

Deepak started the bout slowly before ending the first round strongly and hit his opponent with a flurry of punches but lost by 2-3. After losing the second round as well, Deepak picked up the pace and moved around swiftly, while hitting his opponent with some hard blows. Deepak will next face Zhang Jiamao of China.

“My target was to play with patience and gather as many points as I can. The first two rounds were tough but I was focused on not losing my patience and waiting for the right moment to attack,” Deepak said. “The coaches had told me to lure my opponent with the right punch before using my left hook. It worked as I connected a lot of left hooks to get points. Every bout is important for me and I play like it’s a final,” he added.

However, it was the end of the road from Sumit Kundu (75kg) and Narender Berwal ( 92kg).