Amit upsets Olympic champ to gold
After losing to Uzbek Dusmatov twice, Army boy scores biggest win of his career in light flyweight final
JAKARTA: Beating an Olympic boxing champion requires something more than simply throwing power-packed punches. On Saturday, the penultimate day of the Asian Games, Amit Panghal — the lone Indian left standing in the boxing arena after Vikas Krishan pulled out due to a deep cut over his left eye — showed he was not just a boxer with brawn but one who had the mental strength and technique to counter the best in the business.
The Jakarta Expo Centre was buzzing with Indian expatriates hours before Amit took to the ring to face Olympic gold medallist Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the light flyweight final.
As the public address system boomed to signal the start of the bout — which was the first of the day — nervous energy gripped the arena. The next nine minutes passed in something of a blur. At the end of it, Amit had emerged champion, winning the bout 3-2.
Dusmatov was always expected to be a tough customer and Amit was billed as the underdog ahead of the bout. But Amit’s coach Santiago Nieva had faith in the abilities of his ward.
The sure-footedness was evident from the first round itself when Amit took on the aggressive Uzbek with the alertness of a leopard. Amit’s nimbleness helped him counter the Uzbek’s left hook and the counter-attack did quite a bit of damage early, not so much physically, but mentally.
Dusmatov, who thrives on the gains from the first round, was not able to settle into a rhythm. Every time the Uzbek cocked or ducked, Amit instantaneously knew the sledge-hammer was coming and he would drift out of harm’s way, regrouping for the counter-attack.
The trend continued in all the three rounds and though Amit had a slight setback, when a couple of left-right combinations breached his defence, a left hook from the Indian in the second round left the Uzbek wobbly.
Round three was more of a slugfest but with Amit blocking most of Dusmatov’s punches, the Uzbek was rapidly losing his rhythm and control over his rival even as Amit’s counterpunches kept damaging not just the reputation of the opponent but also turned the tide in his favour.
“Dusmatov comes at you with a lot of aggression in the first round and the best way to negate it is to parry his lead hook and then counter-attack,” said coach Nieva who hails from Sweden. He added that the victory was one of the best by an Indian in terms of technique and application.
“Here was an Olympic champion and Amit had lost the two previous times he had played the Uzbek, but analysing the rival’s Olympic bouts and also the two losses Amit suffered at the Uzbek’s hands, helped us figure out his technique,” said Nieva.
On whether this win was in the same league as MC Mary Kom’s title triumph at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, Nieva said, “This was just too good. This was scientifically and technically far superior.”
“We knew Dusmatov is an explosive boxer, so we had asked Amit to stay away from him. Amit did not play a great first round in his semi-finals because he started his warm-ups late.
“But today we didn’t make that mistake. Today, he didn’t have to do catch-up and was connecting his punches very well in the first round itself,” said the coach. Besides, the coach felt Dusmatov was no longer the same boxer he was during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
“The difference in strength was evident, so we knew Amit could stop him. Dusmatov got tired towards the end and his punches did not have the strength.”