New Delhi, 29 July 2017: With the tagline of Hit Harder, the action in the Super Boxing League continued tonight as the Mumbai Assassins took on the Bahubali Boxers in the last match of the league for both teams in Group B encounter here at the Siri Fort Squash & Badminton Stadium. The match between both the teams ended in a 9-9 draw as Bollywood actors Suniel Shetty, Sohail Khan and Rana Daggubati witnessed the action.
It was Asif Asad Khan and Pawan Goyat who had given the Mumbai Assassins’ a 6-0 lead after two bouts. But Bahubali Boxers’ Preeti Shah and Sandeep Dhull won their respective bouts to equalise. The match became interesting as Mumbai’s Satish Dhull won the fifth bout before the night ended with Bahubali Boxers’ captain equalled the score at 9-9 as he won the last bout.
The first bout of the night was between Asif Asad Khan from the Mumbai Assassins and Sunil Sharma from the Bahubali Boxers in the Feather Weight category. The boxer from the Mumbai Assassins, Asif Asad Khan started the bout on the front foot as he threw some good combinations on his opponent in Round 1 & 2 to set the rhythm for his team. It was important for Asif to end his team’s campaign on a high in the Super Boxing League. Bahubali Boxers’ Sunil Sharma also impressed in Round 3 as he was looking to hit Khan on the counter. But Assassins’ Khan came back again in Round 4 through some better punches as he stole the match by Unanimous Decision to give the Mumbai Assassins a 3-0 lead.
In the second bout of the night, it was up to Bahubali Boxers’ Joseph Emmanuel to cut down the lead for his team as he faced Pawan Goyat from the Mumbai Assassins in the Welter Weight category. Boxers’ Emmanuel started Round 1 with a good strategy as he kept his guard up and tried hitting Goyat on the counter; however the latter did manage to throw some punches on his opponent. Round 2 was equally spread between the two pugilists as they both hit each other with some beautiful combinations, uppercuts and jabs. But it was Round 3 & 4 which got the victory for Goyat as he got some good jabs and combinations on Emmanuel. The latter seemed to have lost his speed and thrust as Goyat took advantage of it to win by Unanimous Decision to extend Assassins’ lead to 6 points.
Mumbai Assassins seemed to be in a perfect position after the first two bouts but it was debutant Urvashi who took on Bahubali Boxers’ Preeti Shah in the Super Fly Weight category. Both the boxers started Round 1 slowly as Urvashi was eager to start well, but Preeti turned it around later on as she got some nice punches on Urvashi. Boxers’ Shah started Round 2 aggressively as she hit Urvashi with some good jabs and combinations. Round 3 & 4 were dominated by Preeti Shah as she hit harder to claim the victory by Unanimous Decision and win an all important 3 points for her team Bahubali Boxers.
In the fourth fight of the night, it was the Mumbai Assassins’ Siddharth Verma and Bahubali Boxers’ Sandeep Dhull in the Middle Weight category. The latter started the fight strongly as he hit some beautiful combinations on Verma in Round 1 & 2. However, the Mumbai Assassins’ man wasn’t going down without a fight as he hit back on Dhull in the latter two Rounds to make it a very interesting match. However, it was Dhull who kept his smacks on target to win the bout by Unanimous Decision to level the scores at 6-6.
In the fifth bout, it was Bahubali Boxers’ Dushytant Shrivastav who faced Mumbai Assassins’ Satish Dhull in the Super Middle Weight category. It was an important bout for both the teams as a win for either team would put them into the lead. It was Assassins’ Dhull who started the bout confidently as he aimed to dent Bahubali Boxers’ chances in SBL. The Assassins’ man took an aggressive approach, which saw him dominate most of the fight with some amazing combinations. At the end of four Rounds, it was Satish Dhull who was awarded the victory by Unanimous Decision to give the lead to the Mumbai Assassins 9-6.
In the deciding bout of the night, it was Mumbai Assassins’ skipper Ram Singh who returned to action as he was up against Bahubali Boxers’ captain Kuldeep Singh in the Heavy Weight category. Ram Singh started the fight strongly in Round 1 & 2 but he seemed to slow down in the end as Kuldeep Singh came into his own. The latter hit some amazing punches in the third Round to take the upper hand as Ram Singh struggled in the last Round. It was a fight which was dominated by Kuldeep and it was important for him to win to equalise the scores. In the end, Boxers’ captain Kuldeep’s efforts were enough to win him the bout by Unanimous Decision to level the scores 9-9.
