AGENCIES
NEW DELHI
Indian boxer Neeraj Goyat (69kg) lost in the box-off for an Olympic quota berth in the International Boxing Association's Olympic qualifying tournament for professional boxers in Vargas, Venezuela.
The 24-year-old Neeraj, who is the reigning WBC Asian champion, went down 3-0 to Spaniard Sissokho Ndiaye Youba, pushing him out of contention for an Olympic berth as the box-off was held to determine the third Olympic qualifier in the category; the finalists take the top two slots.
Youba had lost 3-0 to top seed Juan Pablo Romero Marin in his semifinal clash, while Goyat had gone down to the second seeded German Arajik Marutjan, a former European Championships silver-medalist.
The competition has 26 Rio Quota Places on offer -- three in every weight category except heavyweight (91kg) and super heavyweight (91+kg), from which only the winners will earn an Olympic spot. The tournament features boxers from AIBA's own professional events -- the World Series of Boxing (WSB) and AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) -- besides pro boxers from all over the world.
However, none of the big names in the pro circuit have made themselves available for the event citing reasons ranging from fitness to lack of time for preparation and the threat of sanctions by their promoters and licensing bodies like the WBO and the IBA. So far, three Indian boxers -- Shiva Thapa (56kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg) -- have booked their tickets for the Olympics through qualifiers for amateurs.
