New Delhi, 23 July 2017: Another action-packed SuperSunday in the Super Boxing League saw Group A teams Haryana Warriors and UP Terminators fight it out in the 9thmatch of the league here at the Siri Fort Squash & Badminton Stadium. It was the Haryana Warriors who registered a much-needed second win against the UP Terminators with a margin of 15-3 to stay in the hunt for semi-finals qualification. However, it was the last match for the UP Terminators as they have been knocked out of the Super Boxing League after failing to win any of their three matches.
UP Terminators’ Ashish Kumar opened the scoring for his side with a victory but Warriors’ Parmod Kumar, Anita Kumari, Sandeep Nain, Sukhdeep Singh and Jagdeep Singh were all winners in their respective categories to give their team an important three points to keep pace with the Delhi Gladiators.
In the first fight of the day, Haryana Warriors’ Sandeep Bhagri faced UP Terminators’ Ashish Kumar in the Feather Weight category. The first Round saw both the boxers starting strongly as there was heavy exchange of punches. However, it was Bhagri who dominated the Round as he hit the better punches. Round 2 saw a similar story as Kumar also pushed the pace with his combinations and hooks. It was a well balanced fight between the two boxers as both the boxers looked sharp. The action continued in Round 3 as Kumar took the initiative to make a statement as he hit some barging blows on Bhagri to put the tie on equal terms. But Warriors’ Bhagri also landed some punches on Kumar to end the third Round. Both the boxers had to go for it in the fourth Round to get the win for their team. It was Terminators’ Kumar who was the aggressor as he needed some important blows to win the bout. This meant that it was UP Terminators’ Ashish Kumar who was declared the winner by Unanimous Decision to give his side an early lead of 3-0.
It was now up to Haryana Warriors’ Parmod Kumar to cut short the lead for his team as he faced UP Terminators’ Md Mostafa in the Welter Weight category. Round 1 saw both the boxers take the opportunity to strike punches but it was Mostafa who focused on quantity rather than quality. However, Kumar kept his guard up throughout the round and hit Mostafa on the counter to make it a very exciting fight. Round 2 saw both the boxers doing a great job as they hit each other with some barging blows. The third Round turned out to be even better for both the boxers as they started to get into a nice rhythm. It was Mostafa who dominated the fight though as he hit more accurate punches on Kumar. The latter had replaced Warriors’ skipper Neeraj Goyat and he had won his last fight. Kumar maintained his winning record as he got the better hits in Round 4 to clinch the victory by Unanimous Decision to put the teams level on points 3-3.
The third fight saw Haryana Warriors’ Anita Kumari take on UP Terminators’ Lalruatfeli in the Super Fly category. Anita Kumari was high on confidence as she had won her first fight last weekend when she beat Bugalia. However, it was Terminators’ Lalruatfeli who started Round 1 with a better rhythm as she hit some early punches on Kumari. But the latter did not back down as she countered Lalruatfeli with some impressive combinations. Round 2 saw a similar story as the boxers kept up the pace. The 19-year-old southpaw hit some good combinations on Lalruatfeli in Round 3 & 4 to make the fight interesting. However, the Terminators’ boxer focused on hitting some jabs which she couldn’t quite get on target. This meant that the referees decided to award the victory to Anita Kumari by Unanimous Decision, giving a 6-3 lead to Haryana Warriors after three bouts.
The fourth fight saw Haryana Warriors’ Sandeep Nain take on UP Terminators’ Deepak Kumar in the Middle Weight category. In the first Round, both pugilists kept their shape in order to not give-in to their opponents’ initial attacks. Round 2 saw both the boxers giving some good combinations to each other but the Round belonged to Sandeep Nain as he hit his opponent harder with each blow as he utilised the age advantage. Round 3 was important for Kumar if he wanted to make a comeback, but Nain kept barging Kumar with some good combinations to win the Round and being the aggressor in the fight. Warriors’ Nain kept pushing with some amazing jabs on Terminators’ Kumar through Round 4 to win the fight by Unanimous Decision to extend his team’s lead to 9-3.
The fifth fight of the night was between Haryana Warriors’ Sukhdeep Singh and UP Terminators’ Amitesh Chaubey in the Super Middle Weight category. It was an important bout for both the teams as a win for either boxer would decide the final outcome of the match. Warriors’ Sukhdeep Singh took the initiative early on as he produced some marvelous combinations to put pressure on Chaubey in Round 1 and 2. However, Chaubey chose to hold on to his composure in the next two Rounds. Terminators’ boxer kept his guard up when it mattered, but it was not enough to keep out the heavy body shots and jabs that Singh produced. Thus, the final result was in favour of Haryana Warriors’ Sukhdeep Singh as he was awarded the win by Unanimous Decision which saw the Haryana Warriors lead UP Terminators 12-3, meaning that the former had secured the victory on the night.
The last fight of the night was a mere formality as Haryana Warriors had already won the tie. In the Heavy Weight category, UP Terminators were represented by Naveen Parashar and Haryana Warriors were represented by Jagdeep Singh. The Haryana Warriors’ man Singh started the first two Rounds on the front foot, making his debut in SBL. Parashar was always on the back-foot in the first two Rounds, as he failed to take the initiative. In Round 3, both the boxers started to look tired as they got into the latter part of the fight. Parashar tried to smack some blows on Singh but he failed to connect properly, whereas Singh was always hitting Parashar with some barging blows. Round 4 was all about keeping the composure for Singh, and not conceding, but Parashar did well in the last Round to hit some nice jabs and hooks on his opponent. However, Singh held on until the end of the fight and was eventually awarded the win by Unanimous Decision to make it 15-3 in Warriors’ favour on the night.
