Manoj Kumar punches out London Oly bronze medallist

Manoj Kumar, India’s 64kg (light welterweight) category Olympian, started his boxing campaign in Rio on Wednesday with a 2-1 win over London Olympics bronze medallist Lithuania’s Evaldas Petrauska to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

Lithuanian was the favourite for the game considering his medal tally with the Indian but Manoj Kumar put up a strong show as he defeated Petrauska on unanimous decision.

While Petrauska did look much stronger and aggressive, Manoj took away the points on the basis of his clean punching and stylish display.

In the first set, Manoj used his feet very well to play around with the Lithuanian and landed good long range punches which got him points. Towards the end of the set, Manoj did get hurt though owing to a couple of hard punches from Petrauska.

The second set also saw Manoj find spaces and use his height advantage cleverly. He managed to move around and bend backwards multiple times to dodge Petrauska’s punches and used the moment to punch his own. It was his long range boxing that caught the eye of the judges. Even in this set, some hard and aggressive punches from the Lithuanian dis-balanced Manoj for a moment. 

Manoj turned on his defensive game in the final set after winning the first two sets on points. While the Lithuanian powered his fist towards the Indian many a times, Manoj held his own and punched through the spaces.

Manoj joined fellow boxer Vikas Krishnan in the pre-quarters, who won against USA’s Charles Conwell in the 75kg category on Tuesday.