Gacevic, Basaria and Balabin among the winners in the opening day of the Montenegro Youth & Junior Cup

The Montenegro Youth & Junior Cup is a new event in the European boxing map which started in the city of Budva with 15 contests. Montenegro’s Luka Gacevic won a tough opening contest in the event where Georgia’s Luka Basaria and Ukraine’s EUBC European Junior Champion Oleksandr Balabin were also among the winners of Day1.

Montenegro hosted the last edition of the EUBC European Youth Boxing Championships in November 2020 and they had the Adriatic Pearl Youth Tournament in February 2021. The President of the Montenegro Boxing Federation Mr. Aleksandr Klemenko and his team work hard to develop the sport in the country.

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 Montenegro to avoid any new Covid-19 cases during the Montenegro Youth & Junior Cup. The Technical Delegate of the competition is Mrs. Susanne Karrlander, the member of the AIBA Women’s Commission.

The bout of the day

Montenegro’s Luka Gacevic competed at the 2020 EUBC European Youth Boxing Championships in Budva and he is a high hope for the host country in the new event. Gacevic started his international campaigns in 2018 and he had more experiences than Sweden’s Hadi-Chadi Hadrous. The local lightweight (60kg) boxer was not enough shape in the first round but he received the right advices in the break. Gacevic stepped into the gas against the tough Swedish and he was able to turn back their narrow youth contest in Budva.

The Round-Up

Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi will be hosting the next EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships and their junior team competes at the Montenegro Cup to prepare well to the continental event. The Poti-based Luka Basaria claimed bronze medal at the 2019 EUBC European Schoolboys Boxing Championships and he progressed well especially physically. The Georgian moved up to the featherweight (57kg) and demonstrated his power against Albania’s Oliks Gashi who could not repeat to Basaria’s strong attacks.

Sweden sent also a new junior team to the Montenegro Cup and their Nick Zulawinski impressed in the first session. The Swedish talent competed in international events already in 2018 and had strong fighting spirit in his opening contest against Azerbaijan’s Nijat Mehdizade. The Swedish lightweight (60kg) boxer shocked his Azeri opponent and won the contest by unanimous decision in Budva.

Montenegro’s Djordje Smolovic has got four years of experiences in the competitions and those paid off in the against Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Rasim Selimovic in their middleweight (75kg) contest. In another contest in the same category, Ukraine’s EUBC European Junior Champion Oleksandr Balabin demonstrated his impressive technical skills against Croatia’s Gabriel Debanic and eliminated his opponent winning all of the three rounds.