Olympic Boxing Qualifier: India's Deepak Bhoria goes down fighting on opening day

India started their campaign in the 1st Olympic qualifiers for boxing on a disappointing note as seasoned Deepak Bhoria suffered a narrow defeat in the Men's 51 kg in the opening round of the 1st World Olympic Boxing Qualifier in Busto Arsizio, Italy on Sunday.

World Championships bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria suffered a setback as he went down to Nijat Huseynov of Azerbaijan in the first round, going down 2:3 to his opponent in the fourth bout of the day. Deepak won the bout 29-28 and 30-27 as per two judges but the other three judges handed the bout 28-29, 28-29 and 28-29 to his opponents.

The first two rounds saw a tight contest as both boxers went into attacking mode from the get-go. The young pugilist from Azerbaijan took full advantage of his pace and swift movements to make life difficult for Deepak in the ring. Deepak lost both the first and second rounds with an identical 2-3 scoreline. The Indian pugilist came all guns blazing in the final round and delivered some quality blows. He won the round 4-1 but it wasn't enough as Nijat won the bout 3-2 in a split decision verdict.

Asian Games bronze medallist Narender (+92kg) and Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze medallist Jaismine (60kg) will be in action later on Sunday night against Germany’s Nelvie Tiafack and Japan’s Ayaka Taguchi respectively. On Monday, national champion Lakshya Chahar (80kg) will start his campaign in the round of 64 clash against Iran’s Gheshlaghi Meysam.

Tuesday will see two Indian pugilists in action for their respective round of 64 clash. Six-time Asian Championships medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) will go head-to-head against Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan and World Championships bronze medallist Nishant Dev (71kg) will go up against Richardson Lewis of Great Britain. The youth world champion Ankushita Boro (66kg) will face Sonvico Emilie of France, while national champion Sanjeet (92kg) will square off against Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan on Wednesday. The 2023 World Championship bronze medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin (57kg) received a bye in his first round and will be in action on Friday in the round of 32 clash.

The first World Olympic boxing qualification tournament will have over 590 boxers and will offer a total of 49 quotas, including 28 for men and 21 for women. Between 45 and 51 boxers will qualify through the second World Qualification Tournament, to be held in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3, as the countries who have not qualified an athlete for a specific weight category through their continental qualification tournament or the first World Qualification Tournament will be eligible to enter one athlete per weight category.