Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain put aside her detached type with a commanding win over Ruzmetova Sokhiba of Uzbekistan to win the Asian Boxing Championships title in Amman, Jordan, on Friday.
Competing in her first worldwide occasion since shifting to the heavier middleweight division (75 kg), the 25-year-old used her lengthy attain to good impact and outpunched the 2021 Asian Championships silver medallist with a unanimous (5-0) verdict.
Lovlina, whose Olympics bronze had come within the welterweight class (69kg), has moved up a category as the previous is now not an Olympics division. She competed at this 12 months’s World Championships and Commonwealth Video games within the 70 kg class however failed to achieve the medal rounds.
After an attritional first spherical that noticed each pugilists sussing one another out, Lovlina got here into her personal within the subsequent spherical, peppering her opponent with a flurry of punches. A straight proper set the tone early, following which the lanky boxer landed two combos to rattle the Uzbek.
Underneath strain, Sokhiba managed to land a left however Lovlina responded with a imply left of her personal, adopted by a strong proper jab smack within the opponent’s face, forcing the referee to provide Sokhiba the depend.
The ultimate spherical was one other one-sided affair with Lovlina once more counting on one-two mixture to peg Sokhiba again. The Uzbek swung wildly because the clock wound down, however the Indian, enjoying largely with an open guard, ducked and swayed her approach out of hassle. A thundering proper cross within the dying minutes of the bout put the end result past doubt, making Lovlina the continental champion.
That is Lovlina’s third Asian medal, following bronze within the welterweight class in 2017 and 2021.
Though she had solely three bouts and regardless of this being solely a five-boxer pool, Lovlina gave the impression to be a much-improved pugilist. She pulled off a troublesome break up choice (3-2) win over the 2016 world champion Valentina Khalzova of Kazakhstan within the first spherical. Then, she overpowered an aggressive Suyeon Seong from Korea with a unanimous choice to march into her first Asian ultimate.
Moreover Lovlina, 4 different Indian girls had been within the ultimate. Whereas Parveen Hooda (63 kg), Saweety Boora (81 kg) and Alfiya Pathan (+81 kg) bagged the yellow metallic, Minakshi (52 kg) took the silver after struggling a 1-4 defeat towards the 2017 Youth World Championships bronze medalist Kinoshita Rinka of Japan.
Enjoying her maiden Asian Championships ultimate, Parveen — 2022 World Championships bronze medalist — appeared unfazed towards Japan’s Kito Mai and recorded a 5-0 win.
The Rohtak boxer had missed the minimize for the Commonwealth Video games however confirmed no indicators of nerves in her dominant win towards the fourth seed. Each boxers went on the assault early, however the top-seeded Indian quickly started to manage the bout and jabbing Mai at will. She defended properly within the second spherical earlier than unleashing some highly effective higher cuts within the ultimate spherical to take the gold.
The 2016 World Championships silver medalist Saweety (81kg) was up towards Gulsaya Yerzhan of Kazakhstan within the championship bout. The 2-time Asian medallist (silver in 2015 and bronze in 2021) cruised to a 5-0 win.
Up towards the native favorite Islam Husaili, Alfiya (+81 kg) handed India their fourth gold after her opponent was disqualified by the judges in the direction of the top of the primary spherical.
This was Indian girls’s third-best efficiency on the event when it comes to profitable gold medals, after seven gold medals in 2005 and 5 in 2003.
On Saturday, five-time Asian Championships medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) — probably the most profitable male pugilist within the competitors’s historical past — will look to clinch his second gold medal when he takes on Abdullaev Ruslan of Uzbekistan.