Amit Panghal scripts history, becomes first Indian male boxer to reach World Championship final

New Delhi : Indian boxer Amit Panghal became the first Indian player to reach the World Championship final. In the semi-final game he knocked out Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibossinov with points 3-2. He will face Uzbekistan’s Shakhobidin Zoirov on Saturday. Zoirov defeated Frenchman Billal Bennama in his semifinal showdown.

In 2017, he had won a bronze medal for India in the 2017 Asian Championships. He was in the quarterfinals at the world championship on debut in the same year, went on to win consecutive gold medals at the prestigious Strandja Memorial in Bulgaria, before becoming the Asian Games champion in 2018.

India has never won more than one bronze medal in the single edition of the world championships but Panghal and Manish Kaushik (63kg) changed that by making the semifinals.

Manish Kaushik, the other Indian boxer in the semi-final, went down 0-5 to top seeded Andy Gomez Cruz of Cuba to settle for a bronze medal in the 63 kg category. India now have a total of six medals, 5 out of which are bronze. It is now on Amit Panghal to try and win India’s maiden yellow metal at the Championships.