Welterweight pro boxing: Goyat knocks out Sandeep

Panaji, March 19 : Neeraj Goyat showed his class by scoring a knockout win against Haryana teammate Sandeep Kumar to win the welterweight professional bout at the makeshift boxing arena on the rooftop deck of the Majestic Pride Casino here on Friday.

In the four rounds, 29-year-old Goyat took time to settle down in the ring and floored his rival in the fourth and final round.

Goyat was so confident of his win that he did not even go through his routine morning fitness drills."Since last one year there was no competition due to the pandemic.

So, I just wanted to participate even though it was an easy win for me," he said.Barring an odd one, all the undercard bouts were a one-sided affair.

In the cruiserweight, Dharmender Grewal was declared a unanimous winner against Ashish Ahlawat.The bout was reduced to four rounds from six as the organisers were running behind scheduled for the main bout between Vijender Singh and Russias Artysh Lopsan.

Karthik Sathish Kumar of Chennai beat Jaypal Jaganadhan, also from Chennai, 60-54 in the lightweight group.In the lightweight Sabri J.of Chennai beat Nitin Amery of Pune by unanimous decision (60-54).Digari Mahesh of Haryana too won his super lightweight 60-54 against Kuldeep Dhanda from Haryana.

But both boxers were unimpressive inside the ring.They often grappled and hardly exhibited ring craft during their six-round contest.

In the womens light flyweight group, Ramandeep Kaur lost to Rinky Inder Kishore.