Kavinder Singh Bisht (56kg) upstaged reigning World Champion Kairat Yeraliyev to be assured of a maiden Asian Championship medal, while Sonia Chahal (57kg) also advanced to the last-four in the women's draw at the Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok on Monday. They were joined by Asian Games champion Amit Panghal in the last four after he defeated Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the quarterfinals.
This is Panghal's second successive win against Dusmatov, who he also defeated in the final of the Asian Games in Jakarta last year. Dusmatov was the runner-up at the 2017 World Championships and won the Asian Championships in 2015 and 2017.
Entering the senior boxing circuit in 2016, 23-year-old Panghal won silver at the Commonwealth Games last year, along with a bronze at the Asian Championships in 2017. Incidentally, the semi-finals loss in the latter had come against Dusmatov. Panghal had also lost to Dusmatov in the quarterfinals of the 2017 World Championships.
Bisht clinched a split verdict over Yeraliyev, who hails from Kazakhstan, in a high-intensity contest, while Worlds silver-medallist Sonia (57kg) also registered a similar victory over Korea's Jo Son Hwa.
Also making the semis was national champion Deepak Singh (49kg), who did not have to step inside the ring to fight for the spot after Afghanistan's Ramish Rahmani gave him a walkover owing to injury.
However, World Championship bronze-medallist Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) bowed out of contention after a quarterfinal loss to reigning World Champion Chen Nien-Chin of Taiwan.
The highlight of the morning session was Bisht, who came into the tournament after a gold medal at the GeeBee Tournament in Finland. The boxer from Uttarakhand showed tremendous grit against a tough opponent. Yeraliyev succeeded in drawing Bisht into a trap in the opening three minutes of the bout but the Indian fought in the next two rounds. Bisht mostly fought with a shell guard and managed to thwart Yeraliyev's relentless attacks.
By the second round, the Kazakh, who is a two-time bronze-medallist at the event, dropped his guard. Although Yeraliyev seemed the quicker of the two, Bisht was managing to outmanoeuvre him quite comfortably. Yeraliyev was also a bronze-medallist at last year's Asian Games.
Sonia also endured an exhausting bout against Hwa but came out trumps. The fast-rising boxer from Haryana struck some clean jabs in her thrilling win. However, it was deja vu for Borgohain. She was up against a rival, who defeated her just months ago in the Worlds semi-finals. The stage was different but the result was the same as Chen dominated the bout from start to finish for a 5-0 triumph.
In the evening session, Panghal and Dusmatov had the crowd on its feet with an engrossing showdown. The Armyman from India dominated the opening round with powerful uppercuts and jabs. Dusmatov came back strongly and was quite impressive in the second round but the resolute effort was not enough to find favour with the judges as Panghal won the bout 3-2 by a split decision.
In the women's section, Seema Poonia (+81kg) lost 0-5 to China's Yang Xiaoli, ending another disappointing international outing for her. Poonia had got a bye into the quarters.
In the last Indian bout of the day, Rohit Tokas (64kg) fought hard but could not avert a 2-3 loss to Mongolia's Chinzorig Baatarsukh in the quarterfinals.