SEEDS BREEZE THROUGH AS ‘INDIAN TANK’ SHINES ON BOXING ROAD TO TOKYO
Mar 06, 2020
All three seeds breezed through to their respective quarter-finals from today’s evening session at the Asian/Oceanian Road to Tokyo 2020 Boxing qualifying event in Amman, but it was the unseeded ‘Indian Tank’ that sent the clearest message of intent.
Vikas Kirshan is the only Indian to have won Commonwealth Games (2018) and Asian Games (2010) gold medals, and has returned to the amateur game after a year as a professional in a bid to win Olympic gold.
One of his two pro fight wins came at the famous Maddison Square Garden in New York on the Terence Crawford v Amir Khan undercard last April.
Today, though, he beat Kyrgyzstan’s Nursultan Mamataly in style and believes his year of earning a living from the sport will give him the winning edge.
“I trained a lot harder as a professional and faced stronger punching opposition which has made me a tougher boxer, so it will prepare me better for tournaments like this,” he said. “I am sacrificing everything for my Olympic shot. I have left everything behind, including my family, to make Tokyo. I miss my babies terribly, but this is my dream.”
He will next fight Japanese third seed, Sewonrets Okazawa, in Sunday morning’s 69kg quarter-finals.
Okazawa beat Chinese Taipei’s Hung-Ming Pan but said he will need to step up his game against Kirshan.
“I felt I didn’t perform well today so will have to improve for my next fight on Sunday,” said Okazawa.
The weight’s second seed, Ablaikhan Zhussupov, of Kazakhstan, was in fine form as he cast aside Mongolia’s Misheelt Battumur to set up a last eight bout with Thailand’s Wuttichai Masuk, who beat Bahrain’s Abdulla Hemrat.
In the heavyweight 91kg division, third seed Sanjar Tursunov, of Uzbekistan, beat Iraq’s Saadi Rabeah, and Iran’s Toufan Sharifi earned a tight split decision against China’s Xuezhen Han. Syria’s Alaa Ghousoon advanced with a win over India’s Naman Tanwar.
The final fight of the night saw a return to the super heavyweight +91kg class where China’s Maimaiti overcame Iman Ramezanpourdelavari to set up a quarter-final with number two seed Kamshybek Kunkabayev, of Kazakhstan.
Earlier in the evening, there were two cracking fights in the women’s 69kg category which saw Asian silver medallist Valentina Khalzova, from Kazakhstan, beat South Korea’s Suyeon Choi, while Maftunakhon Melieva, of Uzbekistan, earned a split decision against Japan’s Mai Kito.
The action was fierce too in the women’s middleweight 75kg division, with Kazakhstan’s Nadeshda Ryabets and South Korea’s Suyeon Seong completing the quarter-final line-up with victories.
The qualifiers, which run until March 11, has attracted 221 of the best fighters from 35 countries with 63 Olympic spots up for grabs.
The event is being broadcasted live on the Olympic Channel web site.
For the full session results, visit: https://boxing.athlete365.org/the-5-qualification-events/asian-oceanian-qualifying-event-amman-jor-3-11-march-2020/