Tokyo Olympian Ashish Chaudhary stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of the Men’s World Boxing Championships after defeating Iran’s Meysam Gheshlaghi in the 80kg category, in Tashkent on Tuesday.

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Ashish registered a 4-1 win over East Asian Championship silver medalist Meysam. Ashish hails from Himachal Pradesh and is a dynamic boxer. He held the lead from the start in the match against Meysam. He showed his aggressive intent as the first round began, landing powerful jabs to put his opponent on the back foot. Ashish has a silver medal in the Asian Championship held in 2019. He used his smart movement and supreme technical ability to outflank the Iranian boxer in the next round and eventually win. In the pre-quarterfinals, Ashish will face a tough challenge from two-time Olympic champion Arlen Lopez of Cuba.

Meanwhile, debutant Harsh Choudhary crashed out of the Men’s World Boxing Championships in the 86kg category. He lost to Australia’s Billy McAllister with a 0-5 unanimous decision. This was his first match in the Men’s World Boxing Championships. While on Wednesday, Nishant Dev (71kg) will take on 2021 World Championship bronze medalist Sarkhan Alliyev of Azerbaijan in his first match of the tournament.

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As many as 538 boxers from 107 countries are participating in the Men’s World Boxing Championships. Among them are many Olympic medalists. However, boxer Amit Panghal, who has performed best for India in this tournament, has not been able to make a place in the team. Panghal won the silver medal in this competition in 2019. India has not won the gold medal in this championship in the men’s category till date. In such a situation, sports lovers are in the hope that Ashish Chowdhary will take gold in the tournament.