Busenaz Cakiroglu finished her contest quickly at the Belgrade Winner Tournament
01 April 2022The longest competition day with 30 bouts concluded in the 59th edition of the Belgrade Winner Tournament in Serbia’s capital. Kazakhstan’s Kuanysh Duisebay eliminated one of the Armenian stars in the third day of boxing causing a small sensation in Belgrade. Turkey’s brilliant Busenaz Cakiroglu proved her development in strength and stopped her Serbian rival still in the first round.
Serbia’s main international event has scheduled for the elite women and men boxers as in the recent editions. The event is preparation before the main events in May as the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships and the EUBC European Men’s Elite Boxing Championships. The Technical Delegate of the 59th Belgrade Winner Tournament is Mr. Maxim Cherticovtsev of Moldova.
Belgrade was the host of the last edition of the AIBA Men’s Elite World Boxing Championships a few months ago. Since then, the Serbians hosted the Golden Gloves Tournament and the Nations Women’s Cup, which will follow the Belgrade Winner Tournament for the elite boxers.
The safety of all participants, the continuous medical checks, the social distancing, the hygienic preparations, wearing masks and all of the health controls are the responsibility of the local organizers in Serbia to avoid any new Covid-19 cases during the Belgrade Winner Tournament.
The bout of the day
Kyrgyzstan’s best flyweight (51kg) boxer, ASBC Asian Champion Azat Usenaliev has been replaced by Nurzhigit Duishebayev in the Belgrade Winner Tournament. His replacement amazed in the competition on Day3 when he met with Wales’ new national team member, Jake Dodd. Both boxers have the same level of experiences and they tried to fight from the first seconds to decide the bout. Dodd hopes to attend at the Commonwealth Games this July and he had intense training sessions but Duishebayev solved their contest with better technical skills and advanced to the last four.
The surprise of the day
Armenia’s Artur Hovhannisyan won the title at the Minsk 2019 European Games and he reached several other top results during his successful career. The experienced Armenian competes at the flyweight (51kg) in the Belgrade Winner Tournament and this is his preparation for the upcoming EUBC European Men’s Elite Boxing Championships. Hovhannisyan is small in the category but he has impressive fighting spirit which he planned to use against Kazakhstan’s Kuanysh Duisenbay. The Armenian boxer was not able to follow his tactic effectively and suffered a loss to the relatively new Kazakh talent.
The Round-Up
Morocco’s Yasmine Moutaki joined to their national team seven years ago but in the recent period she was not able to compete as much international competitions as she wanted. The Moroccan talent moved back to the minimumweight (48kg) which is her most successful category and she plans to attend in the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships too. The North African boxer met with Serbia’s Nations Women’s Cup winner Sandra Maran but she managed to win their contest in Belgrade. Her teammate, Zohra Ez-Zahraoui is a veteran in the sport but she had the experience to beat Wales’ teenage talent Zoe Andrews at the women’s bantamweight (54kg).
Turkey’s defending EUBC European Women’s Champion and European Games winner Busenaz Cakiroglu received a few weeks of rest after the Tokyo Olympics where she claimed silver medal. The Turkish flyweight (52kg) boxer was not in 100% shape in the Strandja Memorial Tournament five weeks ago and lost a contest to India’s Nikhat Zareen. Cakiroglu used the recent weeks with intense preparations and she did not underestimate her Serbian rival, Jovanka Radulovic. The Turkish star not only exceeded the Serbian in technical skills but she decided the contest quickly and the referee confirmed her RSC triumph still in the first round.
Serbia’s No.1 female boxer is now Natalia Shadrina who left Russia still in 2020 to compete for her new nation. The experienced lightweight (60kg) boxer had a strong opponent, England’s Shona Whitwell who is tall and has the technical skills to win her tactical contests. Shadrina knew the weak points of the English boxer and controlled most of the exchanges until the referee disqualified Whitwell in the third round. Another female star boxer of the Belgrade Winner Tournament, Rosie Eccles of Wales dominated her contest on Day3 at the welterweight (66kg), she stopped Ukraine’s Valeria Kapustina already in the second round.
Serbia’s Milena Matovic eliminated a tough opponent as first in the Belgrade Winner Tournament and she stopped her second rival, Lithuania’s Austeja Auciute in the next stage of the welterweight (66kg). Bulgaria’s EUBC European Women’s Champion Melis Yonuzova made her debut at the light middleweight (70kg) and she won her contest by RSC over Serbia’s Tijana Milosevic. The next RSC triumph was delivered by AIBA Youth World Champion and multiple EUBC European Champion in various age groups, Busra Isildar who overwhelmed Ukraine’s Viktoria Levchuk at the heavyweight (+80kg).
