Tokyo Olympian Ashish Chaudhary advanced to the 80kg pre-quarterfinals with a split decision win over Meysam Gheshlaghi of Iran at the 2023 Men's World Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
Ashish secured a hard-fought 4-1 victory against the former Asian Championships silver medalist.
The 28-year-old from Himachal Pradesh displayed his attacking intent from the word go by landing powerful jabs to keep his opponent at bay in the first round.
Ashish, the 2019 Asian Championships silver medalist, then utilised his smart movement and supreme technical ability to edge past the Iranian.
He will now face a tough challenge from the two-time Olympic champion Arlen Lopez of Cuba in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old debutant Harsh Choudhary, who won gold in the 2020 Khelo India Games and was the silver medallist in the 2023 National Championships, bowed out of the competition after suffering a 0-5 unanimous decision loss against Billy McAllister of Australia in the 86kg category.
On Wednesday, Nishant Dev (71kg) will take on the 2021 World Championships bronze medalist Sarkhan Alliyev of Azerbaijan in his first match of the tournament which is witnessing the participation of 538 boxers, including several Olympic medalists, from 107 countries.
So far, a total of seven Indian male boxers have won medals at the World Boxing Championships.
On day 1 of the 2023 edition, two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Mohammad Hussamuddin had little trouble progressing past Macedonia's Alen Rustemovski in the 57kg weight class, defeating him 5-0 in an unanimous victory.
All smiles after the win ����@AjaySingh_SG l @debojo_m#MWCHs#WorldChampionships#PunchMeinHaiDum#Boxing @HussamBoxer1 pic.twitter.com/0cTMEAbwTP
- Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) May 1, 2023
He faces Lyu Ping of China in the Round-of-32 bout, whom the Telangana boxer had already defeated 4-1 in the Strandja Memorial Boxing tournament in February earlier this year. Hussamuddin then faces a potentially tricky encounter in the pre-quarterfinals, with fourth seed Savvin Eduard of Russia likely to be his opponent.
Meanwhile, three-time National champion and 2021 Asian Championship bronze medallist, Varinder Singh went down against Mujibillo Tursunov of Uzbekistan in the 60 kg category and exited the competition after suffering a 0-5 defeat.
(with inputs from PTI)