Champion pugilist Sunil Kumar used his ferocious upper cuts and jabs to deadly effect to win the only gold for India at the fifth Commonwealth Boxing Championships in Liverpool.
The young boxer handed out a classic lesson in boxing to Paul Butler of England in the flyweight (51 kg) division as the Indian team ended up with a commendable tally of one gold, two silver and six bronze medals.
Butler, who is popularly known as the 'Baby Faced Assassin' in the local circuit, eventually ran out of steam and lost on points, 27-11.
At the end of the first round, both boxers were evenly matched, with Sunil having a slight edge, the score reading 3:2. However, right from the start of the second round, Sunil intelligently stepped aside time and again to score clean jabs and increased his lead to 9:4 at the end of the round.
The third round was totally dominated by the Indian as Butler was reduced to a mere spectator with the Indian piling points at ease to take the score 16:5 in his favour.
The fourth and final round saw a resurgent Butler, vociferously cheered by local fans, land telling blows on Sunil, but the Indian side-stepped him frequently to score cleanly and romp home a clear winner at 27:11.
Meanwhile, India's light-fly (48 kgs) hope T Nanao Singh could not make much of an impression on P Barnes of North Ireland and had to be content with a silver after losing 30-22.
Even Rakesh Kalaskar had a tough opponent in the lightweight (60 kgs) class and lost 32:10 to Tom Stalker of England to end up second best.
England were the overall champions of the championships, followed by Australia. The young Indian team stood third in the points and medals tally.
