Boxing World qualifiers: Nishant Dev, Sachin Siwach register convincing wins to reach pre-quarters

New Delhi: Nishant Dev out-punched and outclassed his Mongolian opponent in just over two minutes in the 71kg second-round bout to reach the pre-quarterfinal stage while Sachin Siwach also advanced to the Round of 16 with a convincing win in the 57kg weight category at the 2nd Boxing World qualifiers for Paris Olympics in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday.

Nishant Dev began with a flurry of punches against Mongolia’s Otgonbaatar Byamba-Erdeneto and forced a standing count in the very first minute. A combination of a jab and cross-hook led to another standing count and the Referee Stopped the Contest (RSC) with 58 seconds still left to play in Round 1.

The 23-year-old will now take on Thailand’s Peerapat Yeasungnoen for a place in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Later in the day, Siwach began similarly, looking to land as many punches as possible on Frederik Jensen of Denmark, and grabbed the advantage in Round 1. His confidence only grew as the match progressed as he earned a unanimous verdict from all five judges in Round 2 and 3 to ultimately grab the win with a 5-0 verdict.

Earlier, Abhinash Jamwal was unlucky to be knocked out in the 63.5kg category.

The 21-year-old fought back with gumption after losing a close first round against Colombia’s Jose Manuel Viafara Fory and clearly dominated the third and final round forcing a tie on points from all five judges.

As per the rules, the judges were then asked to again weigh the performance and decide the winner; all of them then finally voted in Fory’s favour after a long deliberation to seal the final score 5:0 in favour of the Colombian.

On Wednesday, national champion Arundhati Choudhary (66kg) and 2022 Asian Games bronze medallist Narender Berwal (+92 kg) will kick off their campaigns in Round of 32 while Ankushita Boro, who convincingly won her Round of 32 bout in 60kg weight category will be in action against Rimma Volossenko of Kazakhstan.