A couple of knockouts were the standout moments from the Indian Boxing Council's second Fight Card which took place here today, continuing the build-up to star pugilist Vijender Singh's homecoming in June.
At the Sirifort Sports Complex, the IBC-2 fight card got underway with the welter class (147 pounds) bout between Satpal Singh and Ankit Singh. Ankit did not have to toil much as he not only connected well, starting with a flurry of combination punches, to unsettle Satpal.
Ankit went from strength to strength and on the completion of the four-round opener, he was a clear winner with a unanimous decision.
But the second bout in Light Heavy category (175 pounds) was sluggish to begin with. However, after three rounds the scores seemed level with Satish Dhull and Deepak Sheoran fiercely fighting it out.
Deepak teased his rival with calculated jabs to make inroads and got the desired result when the judges gave a split verdict in his favour.
Of the 11 bouts, matches between Siddharth Varma from Maharashtra and Inderpal Dagar of Haryana in Super Welter category (154 pounds), Gaganpreet Sharma of Chanadigarh versus Nitesh Singh from West Bengal in Super Middleweight class (168 pounds) and Devdarshan Sehag from Bhiwani (Haryana) and Ankur Gupta from Gorakhpur (UP) -- received unanimous decisions form judges.
The winners were Siddharth, Gaganpreet, and Devdarshan, all of whom outclassed their opponents.
In the marquee heavyweight (200 pounds) bout, Sumit Rangi had a unanimous verdict from the three judges as he beat Krishna Kumar. But what was important was that this six-rounder went the full distance.
But the bouts of the day were, the one between Delhi's Pradeep Kharera and Akash Patel from Gujarat and between Sukhwinder Singh and Dharmender Grewal in Cruiser class (200 pounds). Incidentally, the second bout was a six-round event.
The Welter class bout hardly lasted the first round as Kharera simply knocked out his Surat opponent in less than two minutes. The Delhi lad did not waste any time and soon after the referee said 'box' Kharera sent a right first, followed it up with a left and a few fierce combination punches, including a right uppercut which were enough to send the Gujarat boy to the ropes.
Patel staggered, fell to the canvas and the referee began his count up to eight before he could get up and ready. Patel was again on the canvas when faced with another flurry from Kharera and when he faced one more standing count, he knew it was all over as he waved his hand to the referee conceding defeat.
