2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships
2019 World Boxing Championship: Kavinder Singh Bisht wins battle of nerves to advance to R16
With this victory, Indian boxers continued their stellar run at the AIBA Men's World Championships this year as they won six out of their seven bouts.
Asian Championships silver medalist Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) had to strive to notch up a 3-2 win against China's Chen Zhihao as he entered the Round of 16 at the AIBA Men's World Championships in Ekaterinburg, Russia on Sunday.
The fifth seed's early use of aggression backfired when his Chinese opponent managed to resist his punches in the final round to land some of his own. A determined Kavinder refused to let that bother him and kept fighting till the end to edge Zhihao by a whisker as three judges ruled in his favor.
Bisht is eyeing his first medal in his second appearance at a World Championships. In his last outing in 2017, Bisht caused a big upset when he knocked out two-time World Championships medalist Mohamed Flissi of Algeria on his way to the quarter-finals.
This year, he will take on Finland's Arslan Khataev in his quest for a berth in the last-eight for the second consecutive edition. Kavinder after his bout said,
With this victory, Indian boxers continued their stellar run at the AIBA Men's World Championships this year as they won six out of their seven bouts. While Amit Panghal (52kg), Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg), Manish Kaushik (63kg) and Brijesh Yadav (81kg) have all clinched wins, Ashish Kumar (75kg) was the only exception as he went down 2-3 to his Chinese opponent, Tanglathian Tuohetaerbieke in Round 2.
Asian Games gold medallist Panghal showed sublime form to register a 5-0 dominant victory over Chinese Taipei's Tu Po-Wei en route to the pre-quarter-finals. Negi had to work hard to achieve a 4-1 victory over Armenia's Koryun Astoyan while Brijesh dominated Poland's Maleusz Goinski 5-0.
Kaushik is the only Indian so far who has played two bouts and has achieved success in both for a run into the last-16.
On Monday, Satish Kumar (+91kg) will start his challenge against Strandja Cup gold medallist Richard Torrez of USA.
Panghal, Bisht and Ashish Kumar were seeded this time as a total of four Indian boxers got first-round byes at this elite championship where 488 athletes from 89 countries are vying for medals.