Akash, 21, lost 0-5 to end India’s campaign in the marquee competition, where Akash became only the seventh Indian male boxer to win a medal. He also claimed prize money of $25,000.
The Indian got off to a great start but Sabirkhan regained his scale in seconds, mainly with his brilliant right cross to slow the sky down after an early burst.
️🇮🇳 #AkashKumar 5️⃣4️⃣kg has entered the history books of Indian boxing… https://t.co/xxPsbRLxWp
— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) 1636030123000
The 19-year-old Kazakh, who is his country’s current national champion, was the less enthusiastic of the two but clinical in his execution, leaving no chance to execute counter-attacks.
Sabirkhan won the opening round unanimously and maintained the lead in the second round, even though Akash gave a better account of himself by managing to upset the Kazakhs with his jaws.
However, Sabirkhan was not surprised by the sporadic shots of Akash. He was very accurate to the sky.
Despite the loss, the Haryana player, who hails from Bhiwani, can be proud of his stellar performance in his first senior international tournament.
Akash had defeated former Olympic silver medalist Yoel Finol Rivas of Venezuela in the quarterfinals.
A product of the Army Sports Institute in Pune, the Services boxer lost his mother to a lung infection in September and participated in the national championships unaware of the tragedy.
His father died more than a decade ago after he started boxing and his brother has been jailed since 2017 in a murder case.
Overall, five Indians made it to the quarter-finals, but four of them, including the 2015 bronze-winner shiv thapa (63.5kg) and defending Asian champion Sanjeet (92kg) lost in the quarterfinal stage.
India had secured a phenomenal silver in the previous edition through Amit Panghal, while Manish Kaushik claimed the bronze.
The previous medalists of India in the World Championships were Vijender Singh (Bronze, 2009), Vikas Krishna (Bronze, 2011), Thapa (Bronze, 2015), Gaurav Bidhuri (Bronze, 2017), Panghal (Silver, 2019) and Kaushik (Bronze, 2019).
The gold winners in the showpiece will walk away with prize money of $100,000.
The silver medalists are to be awarded $50,000, and both bronze medalists will be awarded $25,000. The total prize money is $2.6 million.
In the weight categories, India was represented by its current national champions.
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