Satish, Negi bow out of boxing Worlds

Ekaterinburg (Russia), September 16

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Satish Kumar (+91kg) and Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg) paid for sluggish starts as India endured a winless outing in the World Men’s Boxing Championships here today.

Negi lost to Jordan’s Zeyad Eashash in the second round, while former Asian Games bronze winner Satish Kumar went down 0-5 to United States’ Richard Torrez in his opening round bout.

Negi, a former national champion, was competing in his maiden World Championships. He lost 1-4 to the sixth seed. The first round belonged to Eashash as he managed to pierce Negi’s defences with lusty right straights. The standout feature of Eashash’s game was the power of his punches.

Negi recovered in the second round with well-placed body blows and right hooks of his own but Eashash was a step ahead of the Indian in terms of overall pace and accuracy. It wasn’t the cleanest of fights and both the boxers had to be told repeatedly by the referee to avoid holding and keep their heads up. Eashash even got a warning.

In the final three minutes, Negi tried to claw back with an all-out aggressive approach and even though the boxer from Jordan looked exhausted, he had just enough in the tank to pull through for a split verdict. — PTI