World Boxing Cup Brazil: Manish, Hitesh, Abhinash advance to semifinal

A brilliant third day for Indian men's boxers as all the three boxers who were in action on the day reached the semi-final of the World Boxing Cup Brazil in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil on Wednesday.

Manish Rathore (55 Kg), Abhinash Jamwal (65 Kg), and Hitesh (70 Kg) won their respective quarterfinal bouts and confirmed a medal for India.

The competition will now move to the semi-final stage, which will kickstart on Thursday, with six out of ten Indian male boxers still in competition.

Manish came from behind to beat Yusuf

The first bout of the day for India was in men's 55 kg, where Manish was up against the Paris Olympian Yusuf Chothia of Australia and the former edged past Yusuf with close a 3-0 victory.

Yusuf had a very unorthodox style and was using his footwork to trouble the Indian boxer, which helped him winning the close first two rounds. But, in the third round, he exhausted and started clinching.

The referee saw him doing extra clinching and announced a point deduction for that, giving Manish a chance to make a solid comeback to the match, which he did and unanimously won the final round.

Two unanimous victories

Hitesh and Abhinash continued the winning streak for India and claimed two close wins by unanimous decision.

Hitesh took down Italy's Gabriele Rontani, having two cards with the perfect score of 30-27 and close 29-28 wins on the other three cards. Meanwhile, Abhinash edged past Germany's Denis Bril, having a 29-28 win on all five cards.

Four of the six boxers - Hitesh, Sachin, Jadumani, and Vishal - will be in action on the first day of the semi-final action on Thursday, starting at 10:30 PM IST.