Indian pugilists get a beating

Sandy Brown in Bangkok

Indian pugilists continued to be at the receiving end at the 24th King's Cup Amateur boxing championship in Bangkok.

In the quarter-final rounds of the fly and featherweight categories, Suresh Singh Soucum and Som Bahadur Pum bowed out in contrasting styles. The former lost by a convincing margin, while the latter looked a convincing winner till the result showed otherwise. Unfortunately, both were pitted against the host boxers, Somjit Jongjorhor and Terdsak Jandang respectively.

Suresh Singh, a member of the Sydney Olympics team and the recently-concluded World Cup championships, where he lost out in the pre-quarters, was never in control against his more stylish opponent, who broke through the Indian's defences by playing the wait and watch game before striking.

Singh showed fine footwork, but his impressive prancing notwithstanding, missed connecting on his target far too many times. His biggest folly was the frequent use of the roundhouse and the hook. Had he stuck to the basics like Som Bahadur did, the final outcome may probably have been different.

However, the 12-0 scoreline tells anything but the truth as Suresh did connect with the right and left a couple of times in the third and fourth rounds and that should have won him some points.

Som Bahadur on the other hand boxed intelligently, using the right jab to trouble his opponent before unleashing his lethal left to force the Thai on the backfoot, especially in the third, after treading carefully in the first two rounds.

In the fourth, the Indian southpaw had the impressive Thai on the run when he connected with a powerful left to the head, after taking a wicked hook on the jaw a minute earlier. The Thai was shaken with the punch and was forced to shield and hold on to Som Bahadur until the effect wore out a bit.

The Indian should have gone in for the kill but sadly preferred to prod and unleash another burst that found its target but failed to cause enough damage.

The final verdict: a shocking 10-8 verdict in favour of the Thai that left the Indian camp fuming.

India's Qamar Ali was robbed of victory the previous day after outboxing his Thai opponent in the light-fly category.