The round of 16 action at the IBA Men’s Boxing World Championship in Tashkent will continue on Tuesday, day nine of the competition, and four Indians will be taking the ring.
Deepak Kumar will commence the action for India in the 48-51kg category before Sachin enters the ring in the 51-54kg weight class.
The other two Indians in action will be Akash Sangwan and Nishant Dev fighting in the 63.5-67kg and 67-71kg categories, respectively.
KNOW YOUR BOXERS
Deepak Kumar
His first major win was in 2018 when he won the gold at the Senior National Championship and the 2019 Makran Cup on international debut.
Deepak carried that confidence into the 2019 Asian Boxing Championships and stormed into the final. He had to settle for silver in a tight match that went in favour of Nodirjon Mirzakhmedov of Uzbekistan 3-2.
He announced himself on the global stage in 2021 when he defeated the 2016 Rio Olympic gold medallist and 2019 World Champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan at the Strandja Memorial tournament.
Sachin
Sachin rose to prominence in 2021 when he won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships in Poland. However, it wasn’t an easy task as he had lost in the domestic selection trials of the Adriatic Pearl Tournament which was held before the youth championship.
At the National Championships in 2021, he announced his arrival at the elite level after defeating 2017 World Championships bronze medallist Gaurav Bidhuri. Sachin couldn’t participate at the Asian Championships in Jordan in October 2022 as he underwent a surgery for appendicitis days before the championships. He came back strongly and won the gold medal at the National Championships in Hisar.
Most recently, Sachin won a bronze medal at the Strandja Memorial in Bulgaria this year which will certainly increase his confidence going into his debut Elite Men’s World Boxing Championships.
Akash Sangwan
In 2021, Akash won the gold medal at Elite National Championships in Bellary and booked his ticket for the World Championships in Serbia. It was his first International tournament at the elite level. He didn’t get bogged down by pressure and gave a good account of himself at the prestigious tournament.
Akash, who likes to play counter-attacking boxing from long reach, defeated Shiva Thapa in the semifinals of the National Games in Gujarat in 2022. The southpaw, who had previously lost to Shiva in the final of 2019 National Championships stated that defeating such a big player increased his confidence a lot.
He clinched the gold medal at the National Boxing Championship in Hisar and is confident of winning a medal at the World Championships.
Nishant Dev
Representing Karnataka, Nishant lost in the quarterfinals at his first Senior National Championships in Baddi in 2019, but impressed the then high-performance director of Indian boxing Santiago Nieva and joined the Indian camp to learn from the best in the business.
In 2021, he won gold at the National Championships and went on to represent India at the World Championships. It was the first International tournament of his career. He impressed everyone with his fearless boxing as he played without any pressure.
Dev defeated Hungary’s nine-time National Champion Laszlo Kozak in the first round before outclassing two-time Olympian Merven Clair of Mauritius in the second round. High on confidence after defeating two big names, he went on to win against Mexico’s Marco Alvarez Verde before bowing out in the quarterfinals.
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