Rising star Hitesh Gulia enters World Boxing Cup final

Hitesh Gulia became the only boxer from India’s 10-team contingent to make the finals of the World Boxing Cup 2025 on Friday when he defeated France’s Makan Traore via unanimous decision, even though the bout was nowhere near as easy as the score suggested.
Gulia, who at 19 is one of the younger boxers to emerge from the national scene in India is considered an upcoming prospect in a category that already has Paris Olympian Nishant Dev.
One of the initial issues that are plaguing World Boxing is the level of competition. Because the world body is still in the process of convincing countries to jump ship and join their organisation, these competitions are sans some of the top boxers in the world.
Domestically too, Indian boxing has been rudderless because of infighting in the federation because of upcoming elections. It is the reason there were delays in the women’s nationals, which in turn meant that a women’s team could not be sent to Brazil to participate in this tournament.
Hitesh, the national champion in the 70 kg weight category and an Inspire Institute of Sport trainee, beat Paris Olympian Traore in Brazil but might have been fortuitous in the scoring of the bout.
In the first round, as has been the case with the Haryana boxer through this tournament, he ceded the centre of the ring to his opponent and chose to operate from the outside coming in. Against Italy’s  Gabriele Guidi Rontani, the strategy worked perfectly with the Indian boxer confidently attacking the body when coming inside, but also being brave enough to stay in range and tangle when the situation arose.
Against Traore though, the level of opposition rose, and the performance dipped. Traore played a smart first round, dominating the centre but also not letting loose. It meant that the onus was on the smaller Indian boxer to cover ground, and whenever he tried, the French pugilist was prepared to land his hook and move out of the way.
Hitesh found fleeting success with shots to the body but when he entered within range it seemed to be that the French boxer landed clearer punches. But the judges felt otherwise and gave the 19-year-old the round, 4-1.
In the second round, a similar theme followed and even though Traore upped the ante and landed significant shots, the judges felt that Hitesh’s work deserved another round with the second round going to the Indian 4-1 as well. On the judges’ scorecard at this point, the scores were 20-18 for Hitesh from three judges and 19-19 from the other two.
The final round was the Indian’s best by far. Buoyed by the judges, Hitesh landed clean shots and was the aggressor for the first time in the bout. It didn’t help Traore that he had expended his energy in the second round trying to get a result and was tired, and subsequently sloppy in maintaining the same range that was helping him land his shots in the first two rounds. But once again, the judges sent out a surprising score, giving three of the five rounds to the French boxer. In the end the scores read 28-28 from four judges and 29-27 from one Australian evaluator. The four judges who had given a tie score to the contest all decided that Hitesh was the better boxer.
He now faces England’s Odel Kamara in the final. The other Indian boxers on the day fell short of their goal of reaching the final. Jadumani Singh Mandengbam lost to Uzbek Asian U22 champion Asilbek Jalilov in the 50 kg semi-finals 2-3 while Sachin Siwach, who narrowly missed out on a Paris Olympics quota spot, lost to Poland’s Pawel Brach in a 60 kg bout. In the 90 kg semi final Vishal lost comprehensively to Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan.

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