Asian Boxing Championships get under way today in Dubai

The UAE will add another feather to their cap as they host a delayed Asian Boxing Championships from May 24.

The continental tourney was shifted to the UAE from India following an unprecedented spikes in novel coronavirus cases, which wreaked a havoc in the whole world.

The UAE has emerged as the most sought-after destination for staging the world class sporting events since the outbreak of the pandemic, which brought the whole world on its knees.

A hosts of sporting extravaganzas like MMA fights, IPL, Abu Dhabi GP, AFC Champions League matches and DDF Tennis Championship have been held in the UAE successfully.

The Asian Boxing Championship is set to add to the impressive list of the events , which have been held in the UAE in last two years after being cancelled or postponed at their scheduled destination in the wake of coronavirus.

As the tournaments gets under way today, Indian pugilists are all set to add to their medal tally. All the elite Asian boxers will vie for the top honours across different categories.

Uzbekistan, India, Philippines, UAE, Kazakhstan and South Korea are the countries, who are likely to grab the eyeballs as the tourney transpires. The draw for the event was conducted on Sunday.

The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin is set to begin proceedings for India on the opening day as draw revealed on Sunday in Dubai. AIBA has allocated a whopping $ 400,000 as prize money for the tournament.

The men’s side were handed a relatively tough draw as compared to their women counterparts at the prestigious event which is jointly hosted by Boxing Federation of India and UAE Boxing Federation.

Alongside Hussamuddin, the 2013 Asian Championship gold medallist Shiva Thapa (64kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) will also begin their campaign on Day 1.

Defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg), who received a bye in the first round and is among the six Indian men to start in the last-8 stage, is expected to square up against Mongolia’s Enkhmanadakh Kharkhuu.  The duo had last met at the Olympic qualifiers in Jordan in a nail-biting contest where the Indian managed to succeed.

Another Olympic-qualified Indian Ashish Kumar (75kg), who also received a bye in the first round, is expected to be challenged by the World Championships silver medallists Kazakhstan’s Abilkhan Amankul.

In +91kg category, Narender will be up against another Kazak boxer and two-time World Championships silver medallist Kamshibek Kunkabayev in the first round.

Seven women boxers including MC Mary Kom (51kg), Lalbuatsaihi (64kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Monika (48kg), Saweety (81kg) and Anupama (+81kg) will begin their campaign in the semi-final stage.  Among men, six will start in the quarters including Panghal, Varinder Singh (60kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Sanjeet (91kg) and Narender.

In the last edition of the championships held in Bangkok in 2019, Indian team returned with an unprecedented 13 medals including two gold while Uzbekistan claimed four gold medals but their target is more this time around.

The head coach of the Uzbek male national team Marat Kurbanov selected their best line-ups and informed us about their preparations and targets.

“Our boxers took part in the prestigious Governor International Cup in St. Petersburg, Russia which was our last successful preparation event before the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships.

“We continued our preparations in our base camp in Yangiabad at the Tashkent region and the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships will be our last test before the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“We are planning a 10-day recovery after the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships and a new training camp in Yangiabad in Yangiabad and after the last one in Japan from July 6.

“The conditions for training were arranged by the Uzbekistan Boxing Federation and the Uzbekistan National Olympic Committee,” he concluded.

“The number of boxers have multiplied in Uzbekistan, we have the reputation and we will try to continue our wonderful results,” concluded Kurbanov.

Uzbekistan achieved altogether eleven quotas for the Tokyo Olympic Games at the Asian & Oceanian Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event in Amman on March 2020 and after based on the BTF ranking system.