Boxing World Championships: Narender Berwal, Rohit Mor enter last-16 with facile win

Indian boxers Narender Berwal (+92kg) and Rohit Mor (57kg) stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of the AIBA Men's World Championships after out-classing and intimidating their opponents in lop-sided second-round contests here on Thursday.

While Berwal stopped Sierra Leone's Mohamed Kendeh, Mor proved too good for Bosnia and Herzegovina's Alen Rahimic, winning 5-0.

Berwal thoroughly dominated his imposing rival, who just could not connect for most part of the bout and struggled with his movement as well.

The Indian, making his debut at the big event, was the sharper of the two and did well not to come in the line of the heavy punches Kendeh could have thrown had he been more agile.

Kendeh's sluggish footwork, inability to either defend himself or launch any attack of note eventually forced the referee to hand him a standing eight count a minute and a half into the third round.

The bout was then stopped in Berwal's favour. He will face Tajikistan's Rakhimov Khusravkhon, who is a former Asian Games champion.

Next up in the ring for India was Mor and he was equally relentless against Rahimic, who struggled to keep his head up.

The bout went the full distance but Mor quite literally had his rival scurrying for cover for the entire three rounds.

However, late last night, another debutant Varinder Singh (60kg) was forced to give a walkover to Karen Tonakanyan of Armenia as he was in no position to fight due to high fever.

"He is better now. We took him to hospital and also got him tested for Covid-19 and was found to be negative. Just bad luck, what can you do," India's High Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI.

Check out the latest DH videos: