Mary Kom reached the finals of the 2021 ASBC Asian Boxing Championship on Thursday after defeating Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg in the women’s 51kg semi-final in Dubai. The seasoned six time world champion took her time in the first round and landed timely and powerful punches against her Mongolian opponent. This was only her second event after recovering from dengue and the ace boxer took charge to win the game 4-1. Having already won five gold medals, Mary Kom will face Kazakhstan’s two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay, who defeated Sri Lanka’s Nadeeka Pushpakumari.

Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Monika (48kg) and Jasmine (57kg) suffered identical 5-0 defeats to Kazakh boxers Rimma Volossenko, Alua Balkibekova and Vladislava Kukhta and secured bronze medals after their semi-final bouts.

A sum of USD 4,00,000 prize money has been allocated by the International Boxing Association, AIBA for the prestigious tournament that is jointly hosted by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) and UAE Boxing Federation. The gold medallists from the men and women category will be awarded USD 10,000 while the silver and bronze medallists bring home USD 5,000 and 2,500 respectively.

The Indian contingent has achieved their highest ever medal haul with 15, improving on the 2019 edition in Bangkok where 13 medals with two gold, four silver and seven bronze medals. 5 more Indian boxers including Lalbuatsaihi (64kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Saweety (81kg) and Anupama (+81kg) will play their respective semi-finals this year.

Defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg) along with Shiva Thapa (64kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Varinder Singh (60kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) will compete in the last 4 stages on Friday. Shiva Thapa, who has secured a third successive medal at the Asian Championships will take on Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan. Panghal will face Kazakh boxer Saken Bibossinov, who he defeated in the 2019 World Championships while Vikas will challenge the defending champion Bobo Usmon Baturov of Uzbekistan.

Indian pugilists Ashish Kumar (75 kg) and Narender (+91 kg) lost to Kazakh opponents in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. Ashish lost to Asian Games silver medallist Abilkhan Amankul while Narender lost to two-time world championships silver medallist Kamshibek Kunkabayev.