Tokyo Olympics: Indian boxer Satish Kumar eliminated in quarterfinals

India’s Satish Kumar exited the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after being eliminated in the boxing quarterfinals of the men’s super heavy (+91kg) category, on Sunday. He lost 0-5, by a unanimous decision, to Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov.

The Indian boxer, making his Summer Games debut, put up a brave performance but was not enough to upstage the rampaging reigning world champion.

He entered the ring with multiple stitches on his forehead and chin after sustaining cuts in the pre-quarters match against Jamaica’s Ricardo Brown.

The 32-year-old Army man stood his ground, occasionally managed to land a shot with his right hand but Jalolov dominated the proceedings all through, relying on his imposing demeanour and excellent counter-attacking game to sail through.

Satish’s forehead cut expectedly opened up during the third round but he fought through even with that.

Jalolov, a 27-year-old footballer-turned-boxer, acknowledged his rival’s bravery at the end of the bout after securing his maiden Olympic Games medal.

Satish had earlier scripted history by just qualifying for the Games as he was the first super heavyweight from India to achieve the feat.

Jalolov is also a three-time Asian champion, all those gold medals coming in succession to him since 2017.

With this, the Indian men’s boxing campaign came to an end in the Games.

Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) remains the lone pugilist in the fray after having made the semifinals to secure India’s first and only boxing medal of the ongoing edition.

On Saturday, it was a major disappointment for India when world number one Amit Panghal (52kg), making his debut at the Summer Games, bowed out of the event following a 1-4 loss to Rio Games silver-medallist Yuberjen Martinez of Colombia.

Pooja Rani (75kg), too, exited the Summer Games after losing 0-5 in her quarterfinal bout against China’s Li Qian.

Qian, a former world champion and a Rio Olympics bronze-medallist, thoroughly outpunched Rani, dishing out a clinical performance.