Indian boxer Deepak Bhoria caused a major upset at the World Boxing Championships by upstaging world champion and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Saken Bibossinov in Tashkent on Sunday. Bhoria advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the flyweight (51kg) category with the victory and raised hopes of returning with a medal. He will next face Zhang Jiamao of China.
Bhoria’s tactics included scoring and moving quickly away from Bibossinov to avoid the Kazakh’s counter-attacks. He hit clean straight punches and followed up with crushing left hooks that rattled Bibossinov. He was equally impressive with his defence, bobbing and weaving to evade southpaw Bibossinov’s crosses, eventually winning 5-2 after a review.
Md Hussamuddin (57kg) also advanced to the quarter-finals with a unanimous 5-0 win against Russia’s Savvin Eduard. The two-time Commonwealth Games medallist has been in fine form in the tournament and will be looking to seal a medal when he faces Bulgaria’s Javier Diaz Ibanez. Sumit Kundu (75kg) and Narender Berwal (92+kg) bowed out after losing their matches. Sumit lost 1-3 against Russia’s Pavel Sosulin in Round of 32 while Berwal went down 0-5 against Fernando Arzola of Cuba in Round of 16.
