Youth Olympic Boxing: Hanurdeen bows out of semi-final after 1-9 defeat to Azerbaijan’s Salman Alizada

Story by Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

International Convention Centre, Sunday, August 22, 2010 — Singapore’s Muhammed Hanurdeen Bin Hamid did not progress to the final of the boxing men’s 48kg light-flyweight bout despite giving an all-out attacking performance in the Youth Olympic Games. International Boxing Association (AIBA) World Youth Champion Salman Alizada proved to be more experienced, winning the bout 9-1 against the Singaporean.

Round 1 saw Hanurdeen bring the fight to his opponent, with multiple calculated jabs to the guarded forehead of Azerbaijan’s Alizada.

However, Alizada’s better counter-punching carved him an opening as Hanurdeen’s offensive exposed him to a right hook by Alizada, who claimed his first points of the bout.

Singapore’s Hanurdeen could not find a way past Alizada’s defensive stance. His offensive attempts exposed his weak side and Alizada capitalised on it, giving two lightning quick jabs a mean right hook across the face to claim four points.

Not to go down without a battle, one of Hanurdeen’s left hook finally connected with Alizada, as the first round ended 1-4 against the Secondary 5 student from Serangoon Garden Secondary School.

The second and final round showed the gulf in standards between the two. Intelligent attacking punches by the World Youth Champion saw him earn more points in quick succession against Hanurdeen, with the referee stopping the bout with 38 seconds to go to grant Salman Alizada the victory with a score of 9-1.

“I wasn’t really tired going into the bout, it’s just that I was a bit lacking in defense. I wasn’t really that nervous as I was confident and just wanted to score a point against him,” recalled Hanurdeen on what happened in the bout.

“The plan was to keep away from his punches as best as possible since he was taller than me, but he was (a) much stronger opponent.”