Algerian boxers Khalil Litim and Abdenacer Benlaribi powered their way to the quarter-finals while Oussama Mordjane was bundled out in the opening day of the 75th edition of Strandja Memorial tournament on Sunday (February 4) in Bulgaria’s capital city, Sofia.
Litim, the 2015 African Games bantamweight silver medallist and 2018 Africa Military Games champion, scored an upset 3-2 points victory over Georgia’s three-times European Youth champion Gor Ayvazyan with Abdenacer Benlaribi beating Georgia’s 2022 national youth champion Givi Todua at welterweight.
Having sorted out Ayvazyan, Litim, who defeated Kenya’s Isaac Meja in the 2018 finals of the Africa Military Games in Algiers, now takes on the talented Bulgarian Yasen Radev who saw off Ukranian Dmytro Kolisnichenko. Radev, European Youth champion in 2019 and 2020, graduated to the elite level during the inaugural IBA World Boxing Tour in October, 2022, in which he put up a masterclass performance to outpoint Serbia’s 2017 world championships bronze medallist Tamir Galanov in Maribor, Slovenia.
Uzbekistan’s reigning world flyweight champion Hasanboy Dusmatov, who won gold at the 2016 Olympics, is also in the mix at bantamweight, and received a bye to the quarters, fighting Armenia’s Davit Yegoryan on February 9.
Algeria’s Benlaribi, a gold medallist in the 2022 Mediterranean Games, will trade leather with Bulgaria’s Rosen Markov in the quarter-finals.
Oussama Mordjane proved no match for Uzbekistan’s reigning world featherweight champion Abdumalik Khalokov who broke no sweat in his 5-0 win over the Algerian in the lightweight category to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Algeria’s all four female boxers taking part in the Strandja Memorial are in action today (February 5).
Two-time Africa Championships silver medallist Fatiha Mansouri meets tough Wassila Lkhadari in the light-flyweight class. The French girl won bronze in last year’s world championships in India.
Bantamweight Fatma Zohra, a silver medallist in the 2023 Africa Championships, has a date with 35-year-old Sandra Drabik from Poland, a silver medallist in the 2015 European Games, featherweight Chahira Selmouni battles India’s world championships quarter-finalist Sakshi Sakshi with Africa lightweight champion Hadjila Khelif fighting Bulgaria’s Aslahan Mehmedova.
Nigeria’s London-based Africa Championships middleweight silver medallist Patricia Mbata is also in Sofia. She received a bye to the quarters against China’s seasoned Li Qian, a bronze and silver medallist at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics respectively. India’s reigning world middleweight champion and Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain is another top contender in this berth in Sofia.
“I’m not underrating any of my opponents, the competition is tough, I’m here to benefit from more exposure,” Mbata told AFBC Communications from Sofia.
Credit: AFBC Communications
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