Deepak Bhoria and Nishant Dev moved into the quarterfinals of the Men's World Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with dominating victories on Tuesday.
Playing against Zhang Jiamao of China in the pre-quarterfinal, Deepak controlled the bout right from the start and ended up winning it by a 5-0 unanimous decision.
Deepak had a measure of his opponent and called the shots in the first round with his swift movement and accurate punches. He went into defensive mode at the start of the second round and used his counter-attacking game to strike some heavy left hooks on his opponent.
In the third round, Deepak was on his toes as Zhang tried to be more aggressive with a combination of punches. However, the Indian was too quick for his rival and comfortably won the bout.
"My strategy was to use my strongest weapon in the match which is my left hook and everything went according to our plan in the match. I tried to get the momentum early in the bout and lure my opponent before striking some accurate punches. My focus is on the next bout now and I will give my 100% in it to ensure a medal for India," Deepak said after the victory.
He will now play his next bout against Nurzhigit Diushebaev of Kyrgyzstan, where a win will guarantee him a medal.
On the other hand, Nishant registered a win by RSC in the first round against Nidal Foqahaa of Palestine.
Foqahaa used his height advantage to put Nishant in the corner before the Indian used a combination of heavy punches on his opponent which forced the referee to stop the contest. Nishant will face Jorge Cuellar of Cuba in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Two more Indian boxers were in action on the day, but both Sachin Siwach (54kg) and Akash Sangwan (67kg) lost their respective bouts to bring an end to their world championship campaigns.