Dinesh Kumar followed Haryana compatriots Vijender Singh and Jai Bhagwan into the pre-quarter-finals of the World Boxing Championships in Milan on Sunday night after defeating Reznicek Vladimir of the Czech Republic 15:7 on points.
Dinesh started confidently, scoring the first point within ten seconds of the commencement of the bout, and then kept attacking with straight left-right combinations. His height advantage gave him the upper hand in all exchanges that ensued. The vast experience gained over the past two years was evident from his gait in the ring, as a result of which Vladimir was hardly able to pose much of a threat.
Round 1 ended with Dinesh leading 8:4, while at the end of Round 2 he was up 13:5. In Round 3, Dinesh lowered his guard, but after being admonished by chief coach Sandhu from the Blue corner he exercised restraint and did not allow the Czech easy scoring opportunities.
Indian boxers and coaches have realised the value of keeping their guard up after watching Olympic champions stay on the offensive when ahead even by 15 points. In fact, Akhil and Jitender keenly followed the day's proceedings and took notes.
In the evening session, Manpreet Singh went down tamely to European champ Usyk Olexandr of Ukraine, ranked No 2, in the 91 kg category.
A lot was expected from Manpreet, but Usyk was a class apart as he danced, ducked and weaved his way to scoring points throughout the bout.
Round 1 was evenly matched with the score reading 3:1 in favour of the Ukraine boxer. Round 2 was totally dominated by Usyk, who also gave a standing count to Manpreet and ended the round ahead 8:2.
In Round 3, it was Usyk all the way, Manpreet unable to score a single point as the bout ended 16:2 in favour of the Ukraine boxer.
