Men's World Boxing C'ships: Deepak stuns Olympic medallist to storm into pre-quarters (Ld)

New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) India's Deepak Bhoria stunned Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist and 2021 World Champion Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan 5-2 (after bout review) in the Round of 32 bout in the 51kg weight category in the IBA Men's World Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Sunday.

Compatriot Hussamuddin (57kg) also registered a victory to advance to the quarterfinals.

Deepak came up with a stunning display against the top-seeded Bibossinov, the favourite for a medal in this weight category. It was a tough fight and Deepak matched the Kazakhstan boxer. At the end of three rounds, a countback review was conducted in which the Indian boxer emerged on the top and advanced.

Deepak started the bout slowly and took some time to get into the rhythm but Bibossinov used it to his advantage and landed some punches. The Indian boxer ended the first round strongly and hit his opponent with a flurry of punches but lost by 2-3.

After the second round, Deepak was trailing before mounting a great comeback in the final round. He picked up the pace and moved around swiftly throughout the bout while hitting his opponent with some hard blows. Deepak evaded the Kazakh boxer's punches consistently and impressed the judges to win by 5-2 after the decision went to bout review.

Deepak will face Zhang Jiamao of China in his next bout and will look to register another big win in the tournament.

"My target was to play with patience since the start of the bout and gather as many points as I can. The first two rounds were tough but I was focused on not losing my patience and waiting for the right moment to attack," Deepak was quoted as saying by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) in a release on Sunday.

Coaches had told me to lure my opponent with the right punch before using my left hook to good effect. It worked as I connect a lot of left hooks to get points. Every bout is important for me and I play every match like it's a final match for me. I am focused on winning my next bout now," Deepak said after the victory.

On the other hand, Hussamuddin faced Russia's Savvin Eduard in the pre-quarters. The Indian pugilist dominated the bout from the start and never gave any chance of a comeback to his opponent.

Hussamuddin was quicker than his Russian opponent in the second round as well. In the third round, he kept on counter-punching smartly to register a 5-0 win. He will go up against second seed Umid Rustamov (Azerbaijan) in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Boxers Sumit (75kg) and Narender (92+kg) will be in action later on Sunday night. Sumit will start his campaign in the round of 32 bout against Russia's Pavel Sosulin while Narender will square off against Arzola Lopez of Cuba in the last-16 stage.

The ongoing tournament is witnessing the participation of 538 boxers, including several Olympic medallists, from 107 countries.

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