1st AIBA Boxing World Cup - Preview

The 1st AIBA Boxing World Cup will be held in Moscow from 10th to 14th December, 2008. This is the first world level competition after the Olympics, and after the fine performance of Indian boxers at Beijing, Indian boxing fans have a lot to look forward to at this event.

The World Cup will mark a significant milestone for AIBA in its goal to lead the boxing world into new exciting territory. The tournament will have an innovative format, tailor-made for boxing fans and media around the world.

The World Cup will have 11 weight classes and only 8 participants in each weight class as compared to 32 in the Olympics, making the tournament far more exclusive and the competition much tougher than the Olympics or the World Championships. It’s therefore not surprising that even the likes of Beijing bronze-medallist Vijender Kumar have failed to make the cut for the World Cup.

The World of boxing is extremely competitive – there are many top boxers in each category and anyone can beat anyone on a given day – as we saw in the Beijing Olympics, where a number of Olympic and World Championship medallists had to return empty handed.

Indian fans need not be disappointed though. The tricolour will be held aloft by four Indian participants – Akhil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Lalit Anthresh Lakra. This number is an achievement in itself – apart from hosts Russia and traditional powerhouses Cuba, few other nations have this many participants.

Led by the indomitable Akhil Kumar in the Bantamweight (54 Kg), the Indian contingent is all raring to go. It’s a blessing to have someone like him around. Always full of self-belief his confidence rubs off on the other members of the team as well. And as his victory over World Champion Sergey Vodopyanov showed, the confidence is not misplaced. Moscow will be a good chance to make up for the disappointment of Beijing. The Olympic Champion Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan will be missing. But Vodopyanov will be there - thirsty for revenge and so will be Veaceslav Gojan, the guy who beat Akhil at the Olympics. The other formidable rival will be Olympic silver medallist Yankiel Leon of Cuba.

Anthresh Lalit Lakra disappointed at the Olympics losing in the first round. Before that he was a quarter-finalist at the 2007 World Championships. He is up against a heavy-duty line-up in the featherweight category (57Kg). He faces Olympic champion Vasyl Lomachenko as well as his conquerors in the last Olympics – eventual bronze –medallist Bahodirjon Sooltonov and the last World Championship - Chinese Yang Li.

Jitender Kumar leads the challenge in the Flyweight (51 Kg) and has to be considered a strong medal prospect after his giant killing run quarter-final run in the 2008 Olympics. The Olympic Champion Somjit Jongjohor and the boxer who beat Jitender in Beijing - Georgy Balakshin are both missing from Moscow. The favourites will be the Cuban – Olympic silver medallist Andry Laffita and the Italian - Vincenzo Picardi, who won bronze at the last Olympics as well as the last World Championships.

The final Indian in the fray is Light heavyweight (81 Kg) Dinesh Kumar – another first round casualty at the Olympics. This category is one of the most competitive, where both the finalists from the 2007 World Championships failed to reach even the quarters at the Olympics. Now both - Abbos Atoev and Artur Betrbiev are back in Moscow and hungry for a chance to make up for the frustration of Beijing. The Olympic finalists are missing but the bronze medal winners - Dzhakhon Kurbanov and Abdelhafid Benchabla are present and together they make this one of the most cut-throat weight categories.

We are hoping our boxers go one better than Beijing, adding impetus to the momentum generated at the Olympics. Akhil and Jitender have a great shot but let’s not discount Anthresh and Dinesh.

We wish all our Indian boxers the very best for the AIBA World Cup.

Go beat the hell out of everyone.

You can follow the results here.