Kyrgyzstan finally earned a historic medal in a Men’s Elite World Boxing Championships

Kyrgyzstan sent maximum number of 13 boxers to the IBA Men’s Elite World Boxing Championships to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Their Munarbek Seyitbek Uulu earned a historic bronze medal for them, this is the first for Kyrgyzstan since the country separated from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Kyrgyzstan had bright boxing history in the 1970s and 1980s during the period of the Soviet Union when Valeriy Grishkovets, Ikram Mirbabayev, Adylkan Bekbolotov, Nurlan Abdykalykov, Orzubek Nazarov and Andrey Kurnyavka were their stars. Nazarov earned a bronze at the 1986 World Boxing Championships while Kurnyavka gold at the 1989 Moscow edition representing the USSR.

Kyrgyzstan competed at the 1995 World Boxing Championships in Berlin for the very first time in the event’s history with independent team. Three Kyrgyz boxers reached the quarter-finals in the 2021 World Boxing Championships but all of them failed to reach the medal in Serbia’s capital, in Belgrade.

Munarbek Seyitbek Uulu moved back to the featherweight (57kg) and he used his height advantage well enough to earn a bronze medal in Tashkent. He eliminated his Puerto Rican, Thai, and seeded Mexican opponents during his road to the quarter-finals which he won against a neighbor, Tajikistan’s Asror Vokhidov taking the historic medal.

Nurzhigit Dyushebayev, who replaced the best Kyrgyz boxer of the last decade, the former ASBC Asian Champion Azat Usenaliev in the national team, won three contests at the flyweight (51kg) and India’s Deepak stopped him in the quarter-finals.

The quarter-finalist from Belgrade, Sanzhai Seidakmatov was the Seed No.3 at the bantamweight (54kg), and he defeated two opponents reaching the Top8 once again but Russia’s Dmitriy Dvali was slightly better than him in the key medal contest.

Kyrgyzstan earned titles in the recent ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships and their team is stronger than in the last decade.

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