Azerbaijan’s main elite international competition, the Great Silk Way Tournament opened in Baku with 15 preliminary contests and the new wave of talents made strong impressions in the first day of boxing.
Altogether 29 female and 97 male boxers are participating in the annual Great Silk Way Tournament in the heart of Azerbaijan.
Baku hosted several big events in the recent 20 years, including the Men’s Elite World Boxing Championships in 2011, the Youth World Boxing Championships and the Cadet World Boxing Championships.
The bout of the day
Georgia’s Levan Demurovi competed in five editions of the European Boxing Championships as a junior, youth and U23 boxer. The 19-year-old talent focuses not only the U23 events this year but for the elite competitions as well therefore he increased the number of his training sessions. Demurovi had the footwork to catch a tall boxer, a former European youth medallist Vladislav Gudzi of Moldova to win his opener in Baku.
The surprise of the day
Mohamed Walid Allaoui is a young Algerian talent, a newcomer in their elite national team but he was brave in the first exchanges against Uzbekistan’s Amirbek Jurakulov. The Algerian was never stopped attacking and his pressure paid off already in the first round when the referee stopped their 65kg preliminary contest.
The Round-Up
Kazakhstan’s Timur Kabdeshov competed first in the international stage of boxing in 2016 therefore he was the high favourite against Algeria’s Amine Zenaz in the opening day of boxing. The Kazakh boxer had to do his very best in the third round to beat his North African opponent who exceeded the expectations in their 55kg bout.
Georgia’s Lado Karchava competed in the last edition of the Great Silk Way Tournament and he returned to Azerbaijan with great expectations. The Georgian prepared for a hard battle against Azerbaijan’s Matin Mammadov which was the next hectic bout of the session in Baku where three out of the five judges favoured Karchava.
Azerbaijan’s European U22 Champion and Paris Olympian Nijat Huseynov is famous of his amazing technical skills and he proved some of his boxing skills against Moldova’s Ion Plinga today. Huseynov controlled the first round with his speed superiority and he could also save some energy for the later actions, dominating his 55kg bout today.
Azerbaijan’s Malik Hasanov is one of the top names of the entire Great Silk Way Tournament and he started his campaign in his homeland with a clear success. Hasanov used his distance better than Turkey’s Yigit Us and he controlled most of the exchanges in the three rounds to manage his first success in Baku.
Kazakhstan’s ace in the event, Darkhan Duisebay won the Asian youth title in 2019 and he progressed a lot in the recent two years. The 70kg Central Asian boxer was too experienced for Algeria’s Imad Eddine Benyaha Louai in their preliminary bout today. Kazakhstan’s next success was achieved by Dauren Mamyr who had one of the tightest contests of the day against Algeria’s Mohamed Maoui.
Georgia’s next young talent, the European U23 silver medallist Luka Nikabadze eliminated Azerbaijan’s Rovshan Abbasov in the Round of 16 at the 70kg weight class. Uzbekistan’s Youth World quarterfinalist Akbar Akhmadov won the next preliminary bout in this weight class, he had the stronger punches than Moldova’s Vasile Cebotari.