Men's World Boxing C'ships 2023: Hussamuddin, Varinder to begin India's campaign

Experienced campaigner and 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist Hussamuddin will fight against Alen Rustemovski of Macedonia in the 57kg category opening round of the IBA World Boxing Championships beginning here on Monday.

Varinder Singh, in the 60kg category, will go up against home boxer Mujibillo Tursunov.

Tokyo Olympian and 2019 Asian Championships silver medallist Ashish Chaudhary will take on Meysam Gheshlaghi of Iran in the 80kg opening round, while debutant Harsh Choudhary (86kg) will look to make an impact when he takes on Australia's B. Mcallister on Tuesday.

Nishant Dev (71kg), who reached the quarter-finals in the 2021 edition, will take on World Championships bronze medallist Sarkhan Aliyev of Azerbaijan.

In the 48kg category, Govind Sahani will fight M Shafiev of Tajikistan, while 2019 Asian Championships silver medallist Deepak Bhoria (51kg) will square off against Luis Delgado in the opening round on Tuesday.

If Deepak crosses the opening hurdle, he could face Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist and reigning world champion Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan in the second round.

Six-time Asian Championships medallist and second seed Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) has got a bye in the opening round and will play the winner of the bout between D. Phillip of Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil's Dos Reis Yuri in the round of 16.

Narender Berwal (92+kg), seeded eighth, will take on Tajikistan's M Abroridinov in the pre-quarterfinals.

Naveen Kumar (92kg) will fight P Amiri in the pre-quarters on Friday as he also has got a bye in the first round. Akash Sangwan (67kg) and Sumit Kundu (75kg) will be up against M Fu (China) and sixth seed Pavel Sosulin of Russia in the round of 16, respectively.

The gold medallists will take home a prize money of USD 200,000, while the silver winners will get USD 100,000. Both the bronze medallists will be awarded USD 50,000 each.