Mumbai: In a real David slays Goliath story, Venky’s Mumbai Fighters surprised one and all by trouncing Baku Fires, who were undefeated till Friday night. The Indian boxing team would write the date of March 2, 2012 in golden letters after registering a historic 3-2 win over the Azerbaijani outfit in the first leg of the World Series Boxing (WSB) quarterfinals in Mumbai. Before the start of the match, Baku Fires had 40 of the 50 bouts they fought to their name and had not lost a single of the 10 league matches. On the other hand, Mumbai Fighters had 24 wins and 26 losses, losing six of their 10 matches, before entering the quarterfinal stage. Going by the sheer numbers, this win has done wonders to the Indian team. Searching for right words to describe the feeling, the victorious Mumbai Fighters team decided to keep it simple and not break into celebration mode. “What we did on Friday night was tremendous.
But we still have the second leg to play in Azerbaijan. And Baku will not take down this defeat lying down,” cautioned Mumbai Fighters’ Technical Director of Pro Boxing, Joe Clough. Sergii Melnyk, who made his debut for the Indian team in the Light Heavyweight category, could not have asked for a better start to his stint. He said the key was not to let the opponents’ reputation play in your head. “I was focused on the opponent and not the team he played for,” explained Melnyk in brief about his win over Vatan Huseynnli of Baku Fires.
Heavyweight Uaine Fa Junior, who managed to keep his slate clean, though expressed his surprise over his opponent Haji Murtuzaliyev’s dirty tactics. “The match was fine till the third round. But I have never fought an opponent who has played so rough. I managed to win but only after overcoming some dirty ploys,” Fa said of his bout, which once again proved to be the clincher for Fighters.