Indian boxer Vikas Krishan (75kg) fought his heart out but still fell short as he settled for the silver medal after going down to Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev in a brutal summit clash of the Asian Championships here on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Indian lost 0-2 to the reigning Youth Olympic champion in a gruelling fight that left both the boxers with several bruises on their faces.
With Vikas’ silver, India finished their campaign with one silver and three bronze medals — l Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) being the third-place finishers. Besides, six Indians also made the cut for next month’s World Championships — the first qualifying event for the Olympics next year.
In Saturday’s bout, the two boxers went in with sharply contrasting strategies in the opening round. While Melikuziev was fearless and moved around fluently threatening to attack every moment, Vikas was defensive and had himself covered in a shell guard.
Vikas went on the offensive in the second round but the fist-speed of Melikuziev was something that the Indian struggled to keep pace with.
However, due to Vikas’ aggressive approach, the 19-year-old Uzbek could not connect as many scoring punches as he managed in the first three minutes. The second round was eventually awarded to the former World Championships bronze-medalist from India on a split decision.
In the final round, Vikas continued his offensive approach but Melikuziev also threw caution to the wind and the two boxers exchanged a flurry of punches.