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India defeated England by 3 bouts to 1 as Pune hosted the home tie of this unique Bilateral Boxing Series at the Balewadi Sports Complex on 14th September. Organized by Shailendra Singh’s ‘Percept‘ , the promotional event was a decent hit with boxing enthusiasts.
The venue being on the outskirts of the city managed to pull crowds with an approximate 3000 odd spectators in the Boxing Hall of the Shiv Chhatrapati Kridanagri which has hosted the CYG Boxing as well Asian Cadet Junior Boxing Championships in 2008 and 2009 respectively !
The neatly organized event was compered well enough with the anchor keeping the crowd well informed about boxing , the bouts and rounds , along with some informational bites on the boxers themselves. Incidently the Indian Hockey Men’s Team was part of the audience made an appearance near the ring and did a quick lap of honour much to the crowd’s delight ! The boxing enthusiasts were also introduced to local boxing heroes Manoj Pingale and Gopal Devang. India’s Boxing Coach G.S Sandhu received a huge round of applause for his efforts in bringing Indian Boxing to the level that it has achieved. The Indian Boxing contingent were greeted with a standing ovation as they walked up to the ring side. The National Anthem being played at the back drop of Vijendra Singh holding the Tri-Colour Flag was a moment to savour for all !
Indian Team: 60 kg - Jai Baghwan | 91 kg – Manpreet Singh | 69 kg - Dilbagh Singh | 75 kg – Vijendra Singh
English Team: 60 kg – Antonio Counihan | 91kg – Daneil Price | 69 kg – Ryan Aston | 75 kg – Frank Buglioni
India – England Line Up
Final Results after 3 Rounds in each Bout :
Jai Baghwan in Round 1
Bout 1 : Jai Baghwan def Antonio Counihan 8 – 2
Jai Baghwan out punched England’s Antonio Counihan who suffered a cut under his eye and had to withdraw from the bout in Round 3 .
Jai Baghwan in Round 2
Bout 2 : Manpreet Singh lt Daniel Price 6 – 11
Manpreet Singh was out performed by Daniel Price who was then declared the best boxer of the night .
Jai Baghwan in Round 3
Bout 3 : DilBagh Singh def Ryan Aston 12 – 5
Dilbagh Singh managed to beat Ryan Aston by scoring some strong points
Indian Ref at the Bout
Bout 4 : Vijendra Singh def Frank Buglioni 13 – 4
Vijendra fought and won against a strong Frank Buglioni who had started with a bang !
So , overall a good show and performance by the Team India Boxers to win the home tie 3-1 against England and a chance to keep the rolling Trophy – ‘Lagaan Cup‘. The winners were awarded a handsome Rs.75,000 for individual effort and Rs 2.5 lakhs for the team. The overall coverage , Print as well as TV was decent enough with local newspapers like ‘Sakaal’ and ‘TOI‘ giving it a good share of space while ‘Star News’ showing the bouts in their own unique way on National TV !
The critics had their share of comments with respect to the timing of the ‘Fight Night’considering the CWG preparations and the fact that it was English B-team in action but such events are nonetheless important to bring Sports like Boxing into limelight , encourage people associated with the Sport as well as for the common sports enthusiast to increase their know how and to get a chance to witness some live quality action!
