26th Asian Men's Elite Boxing Championships,

By AIBA - 9^th August, 2011

Turkmenistan's defending Asian Champion, Serdar Hudayberdiyev, led by 7:3 after the first three minutes against South Korea's 20-year-old Park Sang Hyuk. The local boxer turned their fight and caused a huge surprise when eliminating the titleholder by a close 15:14 in the light welterweight class. In the fourth day of the 26th Asian Men's Elite Championships, twenty medals found their owners.

Park's next opponent in the semi-final will be the Battle of Stalingrad Youth Tournament winner, Uzbekistan's 19-year-old Kobiljon Bobodjonov, who not only made a brave attempt to eliminate China's former Asian Games winner, Hu Qing, but the Central Asian boxer surprised everyone. The contest finished 14:14 and Bobodjonov was declared winner by accepted scores.

The first Kyrgyz medal was collected by Duisenkul Shopokov Memorial Tournament winner, Assylbek Nazaraliyev, who dominated his nine minute fight against Laos' Bounpone Lathsavong by 31:8 in the light flyweight class. Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, Indian Amandeep Singh, triumphed over Asian Youth Champion, Chinese Jiang Jinyong, by a close 13:12 in the same division.

Philippines' spearhead Asian Games winner, Rey Saludar, defeated not for the first time in his career Pakistan's Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, tough Pakistani Muhammad Waseem. The 24-year-old Filippino boxer defeated his rival by a close 26:20 and will be fighting in the semi-finals against former Kazakh National Champion, Ilyas Suleymenov, who triumphed over Indonesia's flyweight No.1, Julio Bria, by 29:11.

South Korea's 24-year-old Lee Jin Young secured the host nation's first medal after beating the Philippines' former Asian Games winner, Joan Tipon, by a narrow 10:5. He will fight for the gold medal contest against Chemistry Cup winner, Mongolian Dorjnyambuu Otgondalai, who eliminated Shopokov Memorial Tournament winner, Kyrgyzstan's Meder Mamakeyev, in another close bout.

Governor's Cup winner, Madadi Nagzibekov, claimed the first Tajik medal in Incheon and secured his career highlight after beating Asian Championships silver medalist, Indian Jai Bhagwan Singh, by 26:16 in the lightweight division. World Combat Games bronze medalist rising power, Chinese Liu Qiang, also advanced to the semi-finals beating Iran's newcomer Mohammad Mahdipour in the same category.

Mongolia's great prospect, Tuvshinbat Byamba, who moved up into the welterweight class this year stopped Arabic Championships quarter-finalist, Iraqi Zaidoun Tarek Mohamed, in the first round of their contest. In the meantime, Beijing Olympian, Chinese Maimaiti Tuersunqiong, defeated Filipino Wilfredo Lopez. Byamba and Tuersunqiong will fight in the next round to secure a place in the final.

The best Taiwanese boxer is Sydney Jackson Memorial Tournament silver medalist, Yang Yu Ting, who is fighting in the middleweight class. He secured a first medal for Chinese Taipei in the Korean city after beating India's multiple National Champion Kuldeep Singh by 15:10. He will face Uzbekistan's Shukhrat Abdullayev in the next round who eliminated Japan's Ryota Murata by 23:14.

Relatively unknown light heavyweight boxer Arman Rysbek became the Kazakh National Champion in February and shocked the Indian ringside after beating AIBA World Championships quarter-finalist Dinesh Kumar by 24:13. Rysbek's next rival will be Asian Games bronze medalist, Chinese Meng Fanlong, who had a clear victory over Syria's 20-year-old Manaf Assad.

Chinese rising star 21-year-old Wang Xuanxuan continued his winning series in Incheon and eliminated Jordan's top boxer Arabic Champion, Ihab Darweish Al-Matbouli, by 19:15 in the heavyweight class. India's Paramjeet Samota also advanced to the semi-finals after winning against Korea's Jeon Chan Yeong.

China's most promising boxer, Beijing Olympic Games silver medalist Zhang Zhilei, made a successful debut against Korean National Championships silver medalist, 25-year-old Kim Ju Hwan, whose ringside abandoned the unequal contest in the third round.

Iran's 25-year-old National Champion Abdul Majid Sehapvandi - despite his lack of experience at the international level - eliminated Arabic Champion, Kuwaiti Abdul Rahman Al-Enazi, and secured at least a bronze medal in Incheon.