Indian Tigers beat Russian team in WSB tie

Indian Tigers defeated Patriot Boxing Team of Russia 3-2 in a Word Series of Boxing (WSB) tie here on Saturday evening.

Kavinder Singh Bisht (52 kilogram), Shiva Thapa (60kg) and Narender (+91kg) won their respective bouts for the Indian Tigers while Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg) and Brijesh Yadav (81kg).

In the opening bout, Kavinder continued his winning run in the WSB as he walloped Rasul Saliev of Patriot Boxing Team in the Flyweight (52kg) category with a unanimous 3-0 decision to get the Indian Tigers off to a flying start.

Kavinder, the 2017 World Championship quarter-finalist, outwitted his opponent with his tactics and avoided anything flashy as he maintained a water-tight defense and slipped in his hooks and jabs continuously on the counter to leave the Russian reeling in the middle.

Star Indian boxer Shiva Thapa then marked his return to the right with a phenomenal 2-1 victory over Shamil Askerov.

Starting the high-voltage clash in front of a near capacity crowd, both the boxers spent the first round measuring each other but picked up the pace in the second as Shiva looked to outsmart his opponent with pace and agility. Each time Askerov left his guard down, Shiva countered with a vicious combination of jabs and and uppercuts to stun the Russian.

Shiva looked like he was getting tired but showed great grit and determination to out punch his opponent to leave his opponent running for covers to eventually emerge victorious.

The Russians made a strong comeback by winning back to back bouts to level the scores at 2-2. Shakhabas Makhmudov outclassed Negi 3-0 in the Welterweight (69kg) category while Pavel Silyagin clinched a spilt 2-1 verdict against Yadav in the Light Heavyweight (81kg) division.

However, Narender thrashed Sergei Egorov 3-0 in the Super Heavyweight (+91kg) division to clinch the tie for the local team.

--IANS

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