Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) sailed into the quarterfinals along with two others on a good day for the Indian boxers in the Asian championships here on Monday.
While Manoj defeated Nepal’s Deepak Shrestha 3-0, Madan Lal (52kg) got the better of Iraq’s Murtadha Al-Sudani by the same margin.
Kuldeep Singh (81kg), too, entered the last-eight stage with a 3-0 win over China’s Aolin Zhang.
Madan gave India a perfect start by defeating Al-Sudani 3-0 in a bout marred by excessive clinching and holding.
The Indian stood out for exploiting his rival’s weak defence in all three rounds.
Manoj hardly broke a sweat against an opponent who was low on confidence. The former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist dictated the pace of the bout, relying on left hooks and uppercuts for most of his points.
After getting a good measure of Deepak in the opening round, Manoj upped the ante in the second, hopping around the ring without a guard against a fast-wearing opponent.
