Duryodhan Negi in action against Koryun Astoyan yesterday

Negi leads India’s unbeaten run at the Worlds with hard-fought win over Astoyan

National champion Duryodhan Singh Negi (inset) (69kg) claimed an exhausting 4-1 triumph over Armenia’s
Koryun Astoyan in his opening bout to enter the second round of the World Men’s Boxing Championships.

The Indian will face Jordan’s sixth seed Zeyad Eashash in the round of 32 on Monday. Eashash got a bye in the
opening round.

Astoyan seemed intimidated by the more muscular Indian but wasn’t lacking in effort. His punches were,
however, not connecting as powerfully.

The Armenian began to run out of steam in the second round and Negi took advantage to land a few lusty
combination blows.

Astoyan’s defence was particularly weak and he tried to make up for it by constantly being on the move. The
strategy was tiring for both but Negi endured it much better.

The final three minutes were a lopsided affair in which Astoyan was mostly left scurrying for cover even though
one judge favoured him over the Indian.

Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Manish Kaushik (63kg) and Brijesh Yadav (81kg) had earlier won their
opening bouts to enter the second round.