Armenia’s Arman Darchinyan won his tough semi-final at the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament

The semi-finals were held in the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament in the city of Kherson, Ukraine in where the winners advanced to the title contests. Armenia’s Arman Darchinyan is one of the top European middleweight (75kg) boxers who eliminated a strong Ukrainian in the semi-finals.

The organizer of the Group A international tournament is the Kherson Boxing Federation with the support of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation. The event has been re-scheduled from a later date and it is holding in the eight official Olympic male weight categories at the 52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg.

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 Istanbul to avoid any new Covid-19 cases during the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament.

The bout of the day

Armenia’s Arman Darchinyan joined to the elite national team five years ago and he impressed at the Minsk 2019 European Games and also in the last edition of the AIBA World Boxing Championships. The experienced Armenian met in the semi-finals of the middleweight (75kg) with Ukraine’s Pavlo Gula who claimed silver medal at the 2016 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships. Since then Gula was not able to make his breakthrough in the U22 or in elite levels but he returned in top shape. Gula was a competitive rival for Darchinyan who is a strong puncher in this weight category. The Armenian had the physical advantage in the third round and eliminated Gula by split decision which means he can box against another Ukrainian, Liparit Ustyan.

The surprise of the day

Ukraine’s Valeriy Kharlamov was member of the national team in 2015 and in 2016 but in the recent years he could not reach top results in the international stage. He moved up to the light heavyweight (81kg) and met with Croatia’s Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Luka Plantic who returned in excellent shape to the world of boxing. Kharlamov proved his best performance this time and he eliminated the tough Croatian boxer in Kherson. Kharlamov will be meeting for the gold medal with Ukraine’s Andriy Petukhov who defeated Kazakhstan’s Amandyk Manashev.

The Round-Up

Namibia’s Jonas Junias claimed gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and at the All Africa Games in the recent years. Junias was Olympian boxer in Rio de Janeiro and he qualified for his next Games to Tokyo as well. The Namibian boxer used his strong technical skills to keep the distance against Armenia’s Hrayr Shakhverdyan therefore he can box for the title of the lightweight (63kg) with Ukraine’s tall Oleksandr Zheleznyak who eliminated the experienced Dmytro Chernyak.

Armenia’s EUBC European Youth Boxing Championships silver medallist 22-year-old Gurgen Hovhannisyan competed in the main elite and U22 events of the recent four years. The young Armenian super heavyweight (+91kg) boxer was able to beat already Cuban and Russian athletes in the international events. Hovhannisyan returned to the competitions at the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament and he used his best strategy against Ukraine’s Maksym Drach. Hovhannisyan celebrated his success in the last four and will be meeting for the gold medal with another Ukrainian, Viacheslav Havryliuk.