Baku: Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manoj Kumar (64 kgs) was unstoppable today as he trounced fourth seed Raymond Moylette of Ireland on points 19:7 to move into the pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships.
Disregarding his opponent’s higher ranking, Manoj kept a tight and close guard and attacked relentlessly right from the start of the first round. By the end of Round One, Manoj had a slender lead of 5:3 points. In round two, Manoj was smart enough to keep out of Raymond’s swinging punches, which could have been quite lethal had they landed at right place. He kept scoring valuable points and ended Round Two with a score of 12:4 pts.
In Round Three, the Irishman started with all guns blazing as he had to score heavily to win. However, Manoj landed a perfect body blow on his opponent, which had him holding his stomach and hitting the canvas with pain. The referee gave Raymond a mandatory count of eight and then resumed boxing. After that although Raymond did try to put up a fight, the writing was on the wall and Manoj romped home the Winner on pts 19:7. His next opponent in the pre-quarterfinals on October will be Hu Qing of China, who narrowly defeated Samir Machrouh of France in another bout on Sunday.
Meanwhile, 12th seed Dinesh Kumar (81 kgs) defeated Bosko Draskovic of Monte Negro by disqualification in the third round. In Round One, both boxers traded equal punches and Dinesh had a narrow lead of 5:4 points. In Round Two, Dinesh stepped up the tempo and Bosko was desperate as he was unable to score. He then started butting with his head and the referee gave him two warnings in the second round whereby Dinesh got 4 additional valuable points. Round Two ended with Dinesh comfortably ahead with a score of 14:6 pts.
In Round Three, while both boxers were trading punches, suddenly Bosko again fouled Dinesh with head butts and the referee correctly gave him a third warning and disqualified Bosko. When the results were being announced, Bosko refused to come into the centre of the ring as a sign of protest against the referee’s decision to disqualify him. Dinesh will now meet 5th seed Damien Hooper of Australia in the pre quarter finals on 04 Oct morning session.
However, Suranjoy’s defeat to ninth seed Tugstsogt Nyambayar was a big disappointment to the Indian camp. Suranjoy was never in his usual form and at the end of Round One was training by a solitary point 4:5. In the second round Suranjoy fought bravely and the Mongolian also got a warning from the referee for ‘holding’ and that help Suranjoy take a lead by 13:12. However, the third round was a total catastrophe for Suranjoy as he walked into the Mongol’s punch midway and was given a mandatory count for a knock down by the referee. The Mongolian went on to win 17:14.
