Asian Boxing Championships: Olympic-Bound Amit Panghal "Angry" About Final Loss After Career-Best Performance

Asian Boxing Championships: Indian boxer Amit Panghal, who is set to participate in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, was upset about his loss in the final to Shakhobidin Zoirov despite it being the best performance of his career.

He is still a bit angry about that "unfair" loss in the finals but Olympic-bound Indian boxer Amit Panghal (52kg) on Wednesday described his silver-winning performance at the Asian Boxing Championships as the best of his career so far. The 25-year-old boxer from Haryana was the defending champion before he lost to old nemesis, Uzbekistan's reigning world and Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in the final of the event in Dubai. The result read 3-2 in favour of the Uzbek and the Indian team's protest, seeking a review of the bout's second round, was rejected by the jury. "This is by far the best performance by me in the 52kg category. I should have won that final and I was angry when I did not," Panghal, the reigning Asian Games champion, told PTI in an interview. "I had given it my all and I felt I deserved to win but it's ok, it can happen. It was still way better than the last time I lost to him. The score-line has narrowed down to 2-3, it was 0-5 earlier," he said referring to the world championship final loss to Zoirov in 2019.