Greater Noida, Nov 21 (UNI) World champions Nikhat Zareen and Jaismine Lamboria led India’s gold charge as the hosts wrapped up a commanding campaign with 20 medals, including nine gold, at the World Boxing Cup Finals 2025, which concluded in Greater Noida.
According to Olympics.com, all 20 Indian boxers who competed in the five-day event at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex secured podium finishes, with 15 of them reaching the finals in their respective categories.
The Indian women boxers ruled the show, winning seven of the 10 possible gold medals, while the men secured two. On Thursday, reigning women’s 48kg world champion Minakshi Hooda opened India’s gold tally for the day, beating Uzbekistan’s Fozilova Farzona with a 5-0 unanimous decision. Preeti Pawar (54kg), Arundhati Choudhary (70kg), and Nupur Sheoran (80 kg) added to the women’s haul with convincing wins over their Uzbek and Italian opponents. Arundhati Choudhary and Nupur Sheoran secured gold after overpowering Uzbek boxers Aziza Zokirova and Oltinoy Sotimboeva, respectively. This marked a flawless outing for the Indian women in the afternoon session. The men’s contingent, however, endured mixed fortunes in the afternoon bouts. Jadumani Singh (50kg) went down 4-1 to Uzbekistan’s Asilbek Jalilov, Pawan Bartwal (55kg) lost to Samandar Olimov, Abhinash Jamwal (65kg) was defeated by Japan’s Shion Nishiyama, and Ankush Phangal was bested by England’s defending World Cup champion Shittu Oladimeji in the 80kg category. Nikhat Zareen and Jaismine Lamboria then set the tone for the evening session.
Nikhat dominated Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Xuan Guo 5-0 by unanimous decision in the 51kg women’s final before Jaismine, the reigning world champion, beat Wu Shih-yi, a Paris 2024 bronze medal winner, in the 57kg boxing title decider by a 4-1 margin.
Parveen Hooda edged out Japan’s Ayaka Taguchi by a 3-2 split decision to become the women’s 60kg champion.
Among men, Sachin Siwach delivered a dominant 5-0 win over Kyrgyzstan’s Seiitbek uulu Munarbek to clinch the men’s 60kg crown, while Hitesh Gulia had to dig deep against Kazakh pugilist Mursal Nurbek in the 70kg gold medal match to win 3-2.
In other finals, Narender Berwal lost the plus 90kg men’s final to Uzbekistan’s Khalimjon Mamasoliev, while Olympian Pooja Rani went down to Poland’s reigning world champion Agata Kaczmarska in the women’s 80kg final to settle for silver medals.
Earlier, Neeraj Phogat, Saweety Boora, Sumit Kundu, Jugnoo, and Naveen bowed out in the semi-finals to secure bronze medals for India.
