"What a warrior!": Twitter lauds Satish Kumar for fighting with a major eye injury against World No. 1
India started their Day 9 campaign with a defeat, as I boxer Satish Kumar crashed out of the men's super heavyweight category at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The Indian boxer's lion-hearted display was not enough to propel him to a win against Uzbekistan's Bakhodir Jalolov. Despite being listed as probable for the bout, Kumar put in a great fight against the world champion.
The Indian pugilist started aggressively in the first bout. But precision punches from the Uzbek helped him win the round unanimously. The story of the match was the same. All of the Indian's punches were rendered useless by Bakhodir's brilliance.
Here's more on what happened during the quarterfinal bout.
Satish Kumar crashes out in quarterfinals against Bakhodir
Kumar's efforts fell short as the Uzbek boxer maintained a strong guard throughout the bout. After the first round, Satish tried to attack more but once again failed to have an impact against Bakhodir. The judges once again declared the Uzbek as the winner in a unanimous decision.
Forgetting about the pain, Kumar kept fighting bravely. The armyman tried his level best to knock Bakhodir out in the final round. But the taller Uzbek didn't let any of that happen. The match ended in a 5-0 unanimous decision for Bakhodir.
Competing in his first Olympic games, Satish Kumar showed great character in fighting despite the injury. His performance was commendable and hardly resembled that of a fighter who had been listed as probable just a day ahead of the bout.
The Indian definitely has a few more years of boxing left in him and will only make the country prouder from here on. If he continues displaying such lion-hearted performances, he can be assured of a great career ahead.
Fans react to Satish Kumar's loss in the quarters
The result may have disappointed the fans, but keeping that aside they appreciated the efforts taken by Satish Kumar to compete in the quarterfinals despite the injury. Here's how Twitter reacted to his loss:
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