Prince punches his way into semis

RBC pugilist cruises past IBC's Omu Kumar in comfortable fashion

Prince stormed into the semifinals of the senior middleweight section as Ramanna Boxing Club boxers hogged the limelight on the opening day of the State Boxing Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Monday.

 Prince cruised to the last-four stage with an easy win over Omu Kumar of Balaji BC. Prince caught his opponent off-guard quite a few times and sealed the bout in his favour in convincing fashion.

In light flyweight, Y V Ramana, representing defending champions MEG, prevailed in a thrilling contest against IBC’s Bharath. In a see-saw battle, Ramana called the shots in the first round with a flurry of punches. A lapse in concentration cost the MEG boxer dear in the second round as Bharath staged a nice comeback. In the decider, Ramana held his nerves to pip his opponent and enter the quarterfinal stage.

Later in the day, a registration blunder from the organisers resulted in referees halting the proceedings for a while. Many clubs complained that boxers registered under the name of Belagavi district are in fact from the Army and said that they should not be allowed compete.

The Belagavi district boxers, who were from Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre (MLIRC), defended themselves, saying it was the organisers who had committed the mistake of registering their team under Belagavi district (BDC) and not under MLIRC.

“On Sunday, when we approached the organisers, we gave two teams, one under BDC and one in the name of MLIRC. We were told that only one team can be registered from each district and we were asked to register in BDC,” said Mahesh Pingle, a boxer from MLIRC. The Karnataka State Boxing Association Secretary Martin Rajendran admitted it was a mistake on part of the organisers. The bouts continued after the boxers were allowed to compete under MLIRC.

Results: Senior: Quarterfinals: Middleweight: Prince (RBC) bt Omu Kumar (Balaji BC).
Lightweight: Rakesh (KARBC) bt Karthik (IBC).

Pre-quarterfinals: Senior: Lightweight: Rakesh (KARBAC) bt Gowardhan; Karthik (IBC) bt Manish Rathim (GCC); Khaleem Khan (RBC) bt Suresh (SBC); Mahesh Pingle (MLIRC) bt Shiva (SAK); Vasanth Kumar (Ravi BC) bt Sampath P (YSC); Sanjay Patil (MLIRC) bt Vincent Paul (SAK).

Middleweight: Prince (RBC) bt Navneeth (JBC); Md Ali (MEG) bt Ashok Kole (BDC); Sanjay (IBC) bt Ajay Kumar (SAK); Bhupender Singh (SBC) bt Anil Kumar Singh (Muniswamy BC).

Light flyweight: Ramakrishna Sillerbe (MLIRC) bt PL Prasad (BSC); YV Ramana (MEG) bt Bharath (IBC); Sreedhar (SAK) bt Anil R (SBC); Nithesh Rathore (BDC) bt Kaushik Reddy (YSC);

Bantamweight: Joyce (YSC) bt Karan (IBC); Prince Sangha (SAK) bt Praveen Kumar (SBC); Silimarasan (MEG) bt Ratheshyam Sadi (MLIRC); Balaji (KARBC) bt Pradeep (Ravi BC).

Welterweight: Chandra Bahudur Tamang (RBC) bt Shiva Shankar (YSC); Nandhan (SAK) bt Atul Lambe (MLIRC); Kishore (IBC) bt Somnath Poorna (SBC).

Light heavyweight: Dhanraj S Kumar (Shine BC) bt Raja Durai (SBC); Durga Prasad (MEG) bt Abrar Ahmed (Ravi BC); Nutha Reddy (IBC) bt Nagraj (YSC); Amaran (RBC) bt Denver Cherian (SAK).

Heavyweight: M Karthik (SBC) bt Sachin (Muni Swamy); Amit Karan (MEG) bt David Manoj (RBC).

Super heavyweight: Prabhu (IBC) bt Karthikeyan (SAK).