World Boxing Championships: Nupur Sheoran assures India first medal

Nupur Sheoran stepped into the ring on Wednesday carrying the weight of legacy and the hunger of a new generation. By the time she was done, India’s super heavyweight hope had secured the country’s first medal at the ongoing World Boxing Championships in Liverpool.The 26-year-old, making her debut on the world stage in the women’s +80kg category, battled her way past Uzbekistan’s Oltinoy Sotimboeva 4-1 in a scrappy quarterfinal contest to assure India of at least a bronze medal. The win was significant not just for Nupur personally but for Indian boxing, as medals in the super heavyweight division have been a rarity on the global stage.In the semifinals, Nupur will face Seyma Duztas of Turkey, and she is strongly positioned to advance to the final. Just months ago, Nupur had a decisive semifinal win over Seyma at the World Boxing Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan. The super heavyweight category is a non-Olympic weight division and Nupur will have to come down to the 75kg division if she hopes to participate at the LA 2028 Olympics.Nupur’s bout on Wednesday was not a classic. Sotimboeva, only 20 and eager to unsettle the taller Indian, turned the contest into a messy, clinch-heavy affair. Nupur began brightly, using her reach effectively in the opening round. A sharp early combination caught the Uzbek on the chin. Sotimboeva replied with a firm jab, but it was the Indian who landed cleaner punches. Four of the five judges gave the round to Nupur.The second round swung back and forth. Sotimboeva charged forward, often lunging into clinches, disrupting Nupur’s rhythm. The Uzbek’s aggression saw her sway three of the judges in her favour.The final round was chaotic. Sotimboeva was docked a point for excessive holding, only for Nupur to have a point deducted shortly after for leading with her head. That cancelled out the advantage. The exchanges turned wild in the closing seconds, with both boxers swinging rather than scoring. But once the dust settled, the judges rewarded Nupur’s cleaner connections, handing her a 4-1 split decision win.What made the moment poignant was the history Nupur carried into the ring. Her grandfather is none other than Captain Hawa Singh, the boxing legend who won backto-back Asian Games gold medals in 1966 and 1970. Nupur grew up with stories of her grandfather’s dominance in the ring — his swift punches, his commanding sixfoot-one frame that made him a towering presence. Those tales, narrated endlessly by her father Sanjay Singh, himself a former international boxer, and her mother Mukesh, an Asian medallist in basketball, seeped deep into her psyche.One of India’s brightest hopes for a medal, two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen crashed out in the women’s 51kg quarterfinals, losing to Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu, a two-time Olympic silver medallist and former world champion. Cakiroglu dominated from the opening bell and didn’t give Nikhat a semblance of a chance to win 5-0 unanimously.Earlier, several other boxers moved into last-8 across weight categories. In the women’s 48kg division, Minakshi Hooda outclassed China’s Wang Qiuping with a 5-0 verdict. In the men’s 50kg division, Jadumani Singh Mandengbam put on a clinical display against England’s Readshaw Reece. Jadumani posted a flawless 5-0 win. In the men’s 65kg category, Abhinash Jamwal outclassed Dominican Republic’s Piter Ynoa Fernando de Jesus 5-0. Meanwhile, Jugnoo Ahlawat, fighting in men’s 85kg division, saw his campaign end in pre-quarterfinals after a defeat to Scotland’s Robert McNulty.