Sakshi, Lovlina Borgohain Win Quarterfinals At IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships

At the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, bronze medalists Lovlina Borgohain and Sakshi Choudhary both won with impressive victories.

Living up to her name, Lovlina dominated the proceedings by unleashing her attacking prowess on her Mexican opponent Vanessa Ortiz before recording a decisive 5-0 victory in the 75 kg Round of 16 match. 

TheAssamese-born fighter, who has two bronze medals from the World Championships, got the fight off to a perfect start by landing powerful uppercuts and hooks to seize control. 

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The 25-year-old maintained her outstanding momentum into the following round with persistent attacks and deft footwork, to which her Mexican opponent was unable to respond. In the end, Lovlina triumphed in the utterly one-sided contest to get her campaign off to a winning start. 

“My strategy was to attack while maintaining distance because the opponent (Vanessa) was short in height and attacking aggressively, which is difficult to contain. 

I could have done a lot better today, and I know I can do better in my next fight, so I’m not really satisfied with how I performed today. 

The 75kg division of the World Championships is new to me, so it’s a little challenging because all the other boxers have competed in it before, but I think I can do well,” Lovlina said following the bout. 

The top seed and most recent bronze medalist from the World Championships, Rady Gramane of Mozambique, will be her opponent in the following round. 

Earlier, in the 52 kg pre-quarterfinal, Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Urakbayeva was defeated by India’s talented 23-year-old boxer Sakshi with a commanding score of 5-0. Sakshi had previously won bronze at the 2022 Asian Championships. 

The Haryana-born fighter won the first round by using her reach to land constant punches with both hands. She appeared to be in complete control from the get-go. 

The two-time World Youth champion easily won the match by unanimous decision after dominating her Kazakh opponent in the following two rounds with her quick movements and deft attacking tactics. 

“The boxer from Kazakhstan (Orazbayeva) was tough, so I thought that the fight scores may go up or down, but after following the strategy of the coaches and BFI, I could play well and could further dominate the fight to win by 5-0. 

I was even more inspired to win by the spectators. With my current vigor and passion, I am definitely focused on winning the gold, Sakshi said after the match. My confidence is growing as the bouts progress, so I definitely want to win the gold,” Sakshi said. 

The Chinese player Wu Yu will now be the opponent for the Indian in the quarterfinals. 

After the fight was reviewed, Preeti (54 kg) lost fighting 3-4 to Thailand’s Jitpong Jutamas, the silver medalist from the most recent World Championships.

Despite her best efforts, the 19-year-old Indian fighter could not repeat the outcome of her previous match, in which she had defeated Romania’s top seed Perijoc Lacramiora

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 Li Qian of China, a two-time Olympic medalist, and Elif Guneri of Turkey, a five-time World Championships medalist, each achieved contrasting victories in the 75kg division. 

While Guneri had to put up a valiant fight to defeat Brazilian Viviane Pereira 4-1, Qian defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chien-Yu with the Referee Stops the Contest (RSC) decision in the first round of the match. 

The pre-quarter finals will take place on Tuesday, and six Indians, including the current world champion Nikhat Zareen (50 kg), Nitu Ghanghas (48 kg), Manisha Moun (57 kg), Jasmine Lamboriya (60 kg), Shashi Chopra (63 kg), and Manju Bamboriya (66 kg), will compete.