Algeria's Mohammed Flissi (left) lands a punch on Costa Rica’s David Jimenez Rodriguez in the quarterfinals of the flyweight category at the World Boxing Championships. Flissi won 2:1.
By Satya Rath/Doha
It was quarter-final day at the World Boxing Championships at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena yesterday after the culmination of four days of high-intensity preliminary rounds.
With British professional boxer Amir Khan watching the action from the VIP stands, Filipino sensation Rogen Ladon, one of the revelations of the tournament so far, kicked off the proceedings in dramatic style to set the tone for the day. His idol Manny Pacquiao’s pep talk two day’s back seems to working wonders for Ladon, as he kept his giant-killing run intact with a clinical demolition of fancied Polish opponent Dawid Jagodzinski to storm into the semi-finals.
It’s the best career showing from the 21-year-old, who is competing in the World Championships for the first time. “I azm extremely happy to be through. I may be young, but in my country this doesn’t matter at all. It’s all about how strong you are in the ring. The next match will be a lot tougher, so I will go and work with my coach on my weaknesses. My dream is to compete in the Olympics (Rio 2016) and now I’m confident I can get there,” Ladon said.
However, it was the end of the road for Qatar in what has been a fairytale ride for coach Juan Carlos Gonzalez’ troops in the competition so far. Three of his boxers made it to the pre-quarters and one to the quarters, which is a historic feat in itself for a country where boxing is still in its infancy.
Hakan Ersaker, the lone remaining home boxer, was unable to overcome India’s aggressive Shiva Thapa in the bantam category to end the hosts’ campaign.
“I had done my homework, and had decided to attack from the very start. The strategy worked, he went on the defensive, and I worked it to my advantage,” said the Indian, after reaching the medal round.
Khan’s presence, however, failed to charge up his native British boxers as of the four in fray in the last eight round, only one could make it to the semi-finals, +91 kg super heavyweight contender Joseph Joyse winning a hard-fought split decision over Ali Demirezen of Turkey to save Team Britain the blushes.
Meanwhile, super heavy top seed Ivan Dychko had no such hiccups in disposing off Florian Schulz of Germany. Baku 2015 gold medallist Michael O’Reilly of Ireland faced stiff opposition from Kazakhstan’s Zhanibek Alimkhanuly before prevailing 2-1 in their middleweight bout.
In the two 91kg heavyweight bouts of the afternoon session, number one seed Erislandy Savon of Cuba and Russian third seed Evgeny Tishchenko made it to the last four round with unanimous 3-0 wins over Uzbekistan’s Rustam Tulaganov and The Netherlands’ Roy Korving, respectively.
But second seed Vassiliy Levit of Kazakhstan, one of the pre-competition favourites, was a 1-2 loser against Ukraine’s Gevorg Manukian, whose attacking stance paid him rich dividends.
There were no such worries for fourth-seeded Abdulkadir Abdullayev from Azerbaijan, who had too much power and pace for his slow-moving Argentine opponent Yamil Jara Peralta.
There were cries of astonishment from the crowd when Cuban Andy Cruz Gomez was declared a 1-2 loser against his Belarusian opponent Dzmitry Asanau in their bantamweight 56kg bout despite dominating the first two rounds. Gomez looked shocked when the referee raised Asanau’s hand, while the crowd opposed the result with loud jeers.
Yasniel Toledo Lopez later claimed a 3-0 verdict over Armenia’s Hovhannes Bachkov to restore the winning feeling for Cuba, while in the same 64kg light welter clash, Uzbek Fazliddin Gaibnazarov proved too strong for Vincenzo Mangiacapre of Italy, also claiming a 3-0 victory.
Today’s action, which will start from 7 pm, features the semi-finals in light flyweight, bantamweight, light welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight divisions with places in the gold medal matches at stake.