The boxing arena at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sport Complex in Balewadi was abuzz with activity on Friday. But there was no good news for the home team. Mumbai Fighters lost to Milano Thunder 2-3 in the World Series Boxing on Friday.
Hosts’ Balbir Singh, visibly nervous, was pounded by Thunder’s Vitaliy Volkov. The crowd did their best to cheer him but Balbir failed to land clear punches. He was dominated by his opponent right from the start. The scores read 45-50 45-50 45-50 in Milano’s favour.
Mumbai Fighters fought back through Diwakar Prasad who brought them back in contention by winning his bout against Juan Javier Herrera in lightweight category. Diwakar won the bout 49-46 48-47 46-49. “I am a counter-attack specialist, so I made my strategy according to my strength. I allowed him to attack and then replied with my punches. It worked for me,” said Diwakar.
The rollercoaster ride continued, as Milano Thunder’s Sergiy Derevyancheno technically knocked out Mumbai’s Patrick Gallagher in the middleweight category. But Jasveer Singh brought his team back in the contest with his patient and bold fight. Jasveer, who was hit under the belt twice by his opponent Nikolajs Grisunins, kept his cool and concentrated on his punches. For his fault, Nikolajs was warned by the referee and he had to pay four points as penalty. Jasveer eventually won 3-0 (48-46 49-45 48-46).
“I started with my original plan of hitting left hooks and then right, but it didn’t work, so after the second round, Akhil advised me to hit a single punch at a time and move away from the opponent,” said Jasveer.
The fate of the match depended on the result of the bout between Mumbai’s Krishan Kumar and Milano’s Clemente Russo.
In the heavyweight category bout, Krishan looked nervous against Beijing Olympic silver medallist. Krishan lost the bout in the fourth round itself, as the judges declared Clemente winner unanimously. Mumbai will get one point while Milano will get three.
