Lovlina Borgohain and Hitesh Gulia, two of India’s form boxers who had gone into the World Championships with top seedings, suffered shock losses in Liverpool on Saturday to turn India’s Day 3 at the Worlds sour after Nikhat Zareen had started proceedings with a measured 5-0 win over American Jennifer Lozano.
Borgohain, a Tokyo Olympic medallist and multiple time Worlds medallist was the top seed at Liverpool. Her first round opponent was Turkey’s 23-year-old Busra Isildar, a junior World Champion in 2021. Isildar was dropping down from the 80kg category to the 75kg at the World Championships. It showed in the difference in build as Borgohain, who usually enjoys a clear reach advantage in her weight class, was up against a Turkish boxer who had similar range to her, but was built far stronger.
A decorated Indian boxer, Borgohain has enjoyed a storied career but her game has been relegated to staying outside her opponents reach and using her long arms to point punch to a win. Against Isildar, the need of the hour was to counter the Turkish boxer’s accurate flurries with combinations of her own. But Borgohain stuck to single punches that didn’t land, and simply didn’t have the combinations needed to prevail in the fight.
She lost the first round 4-1 on the judges scorecard, then lost the second round 3-2 — and in the third, had to give up her strategy of fighting from outside range and paid the price for it with all judges scoring the round 5-0 in Isildar’s favour. A junior World Championship medallist on the rise is a tough challenge, but one Borgohain should have been able to counter this early at the World Championships.
There is an argument to be made that Borgohain, who won a Worlds medal in New Delhi at 75kg but hasn’t had any other major success in the weight class should look to move down to 70kg, which will be closer to the 69kg category where a majority of her international success came about before a change in Olympic weight classes forced her to move up in weight. 70kg will also be an Olympic weight in the women’s category at the LA Olympics.
Moments after Borgohain’s shock loss, another Indian medal hopeful bit the dust. Hitesh Gulia, who had won a gold and silver medal at the Boxing World Cups in Brazil and Kazakhstan, was dropped by unheralded Netherlands boxer Finn Robert Bos in the third round – a knockdown that forced all judges to give the Dutch boxer the final round when the Indian was tied on four judges’ scorecard and leading 20-18 on the fifth’s at the end of the second round.
A jittery opening round by the young boxer in his first-ever World Championships appearance didn’t help against his southpaw opponent who took the round 3-2. Hitesh started landing clearer shots in the second and despite being under constant pressure from the Dutch boxer’s superior forward pressure, took it 4-1. In the all important last round, the knockdown – a brutal right hook that landed flush, dropped the Indian to the floor. Gulia immediately got up, and lasted till the end of the round, but the judges had to give the bout to the Dutch boxer on the basis of that superlative shot he landed at a moment where it counted the most.
