Talanted young pugilist Nishant Dev came up with a high voltage performance to record a dominating victory in the 71 kg category to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the World Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Wednesday.
Nishant took time to settle down against 2021 World Championships bronze medallist Sarkhan Aliyev of Azerbaijan, and then produced a world-class display of strength and supreme technique to secure a 5-0 victory.
The 22-year-old boxer from Karnal utilized his strategy of attacking from distance and landing a swift combination of punches to start the bout on the front foot.
The Indian gave the Azerbaijani no chance to execute his attacks. The southpaw, who hardly put a foot wrong throughout the bout, proved to be too quick for Aliyev.
Nishant will now face Lee Sangmin of South Korea in the next round.
On Tuesday Olympian Ashish Chaudhary chalked out a hard fought victory in the 80kg category to move into the pre-quarterfinals ,while his compatriot Harsh lost his 86 kg bout
Ashish had to wage a tough battle to secure 4-1 victory against the 2021 Asian Championships silver medallist Meysam Gheshlaghi of Iran.
The 28-year-old pugilist from Himachal Pradesh displayed his attacking intent from the word go by landing powerful jabs to keep his opponent at bay in the first round.
The Indian, who has a 2019 Asian Championships silver medal to his name, utilized his smart movement and supreme technical ability to edge past the Iranian pugilist in the next rounds and eventually sealed the win.
Ashish will now face a tough challenge from the two-time Olympic champion Arlen Lopez of Cuba in the Round of 16.
Meanwhile, debutant Harsh Choudhary exited the competition after suffering a 0-5 defeat against Billy McAllister of Australia in the 86kg category.
The 2022 Thailand Open champion Govind Sahani (48kg) will square off against Mehron Shafiev of Tajikistan while the 2019 Asian silver medallist Deepak Kumar (51kg) will face Luis Delgado of Ecuador.
Record six-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg), who received a bye in the first round, will begin his campaign from the Round of 16 stage as he aims to add another World Championships medal to his kitty after bronze in the 2015 edition in Doha.
The bronze medallists of the 2022 Asian Championships, Narender Berwal (+92kg) and Muhammad Abroridinov of Tajikistan, who also got byes in the first round, will go head-to-head against each other.