World Boxing C'ships: Nupur, Jaismine, and Pooja Rani confirm medals; Nikhat Zareen exits

The Astana World Cup champion Nupur Sheoran confirmed India's first medal at the World Boxing Championships 2025 in Liverpool, England, after reaching the semi-finals on Wednesday.

Nupur was followed by her compatriot Jasmine Lamboria (57 Kg) and Pooja Rani (80 Kg) in the semi-finals, confirming two more medals for India at these Championships.

Jaismine took a unanimous win over Khumoranobu Mamajonova of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinal, while Pooja edged past Emilia Koterska of Poland on a 3-2 split decision.

Penalised for clinching

Nupur, who received a bye in the first round, registered a hard-fought 4-1 win over Uzbekistan's Oltinoy Sotimboeva in the women's 80+ kg quarterfinal.

In a cagey first-round affair, neither player found any clean punches and resorted to consistent clinching, making it difficult for judges to score. 

In fact, both players were deducted one penalty point each for excessive clinching in this bout, which in turn forced both boxers to change their strategy and employ a more aggressive approach subsequently.

Eventually, Nupur found some good punches in the latter half of the final round and clinched the bout on a split decision, confirming her maiden World Championships medal.

Nikhat Zareen exits in Quarterfinals

The two-time World Champion Nikhat Zareen had a quarterfinal exit at these Championships, losing double Olympic medalist Buse Naz Çakıroğlu of Turkiye on a unanimous decision.

Nikhat was he aggressor in the match, but Buse Naz showed some exceptional defensive skills to keep Nikhat on Bay and won the first round comfortably.

In the last two rounds, Nikhat had better results on her punches, and she caught the Turkish boxer off guard for a couple of moments, but still it wasn't enough to impress the judges, who called a 5-0 result in favour of Buse Naz in all 3 rounds.

In the men's boxing, Abhinash Jamwal also fought for a semi-final spot in men's 65 kg, but went down on a 1-4 split decision to Paris Olympic medalist, Lasha Guruli of Georgia.