Rohit Mor Gives India Winning Start At 2021 AIBA World Boxing Championships

Rohit Mor defeated Olympian Jean Caicedo 5-0 in the 57kg opening round match to give India a winning start at the 2021 AIBA men's World Boxing Championships on Monday. Both the boxers made cautious starts in their opening match of the prestigious championships. However, following a closely-contested first round, the 20-year-old Indian started making good use of his height and struck some timely heavy blows to score crucial points in the next round. Rohit did not let the momentum slip away and managed a comprehensive victory against the Ecuadorian pugilist, who participated at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Later tonight, the 21-year-old Akash will start his campaign against Adem Fukran in the 67kg category. On the second day of the competition on Tuesday, four Indians will play their opening-round matches.

While bronze medal winner of 2015's edition, Shiva Thapa (63.5kg), will take on Kenya's Victor Nyadera, Narender ( 92kg) will fight against Poland's Oskar Safaryan. Sumit (75kg) will take on Damon O'Neill of Jamaica.

On the other hand, Deepak Bhoria (51kg) will have a comparatively difficult challenge in his opening round match as he will start off against two-time Asian champion Azat Usenaliev of Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday.

In-form Deepak, who claimed the senior nationals title last month, had caught many eyeballs earlier this year after defeating Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan at Strandja Memorial Tournament.

Two Indian pugilists--reigning Asian champion Sanjeet (92kg) and Sachin Kumar (80) have been awarded first-round byes in their respective categories. Govind Kumar Sahani (48kg), Varinder Singh (60kg), Nishant Dev (71kg), Sumit (75kg), and Lakshya Chahar (86kg) are the other boxers of the 13-member Indian contingent who will compete at the 21st edition of the tournament which will go on till November 6.

The event has been witnessing competition between 650 top boxers from more than 100 participating countries from across the world. It is also the first time in history, the tournament is being played in 13 weight categories, as per AIBA's newly introduced weight divisions.

The gold medalists of each category will receive $100,000 while silver and bronze medallists will be given $50,000 and $25,000 respectively.

Alongside an enormous prize pool of $2.6 million, AIBA will also award the winners with beautifully designed medals, made of solid gold and silver respectively, and belts to commemorate their accomplishments.

In the last edition of the Men's World Championships, held in 2019, the Indian contingent had concluded its campaign with two medals including one silver by Amit Panghal and a bronze claimed by Manish Kaushik.