Chapter 4: Asia's Boxing Life on the Lead Asia's New Era in Boxing Begins in 1991 When the Soviet Union Has Collapsed and New Nations Joined to the Sport
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Chapter 4: Asia's boxing life on the lead Asia's new era in boxing begins in 1991 when the Soviet Union has collapsed and new nations joined to the sport. The Central Asian nations had key position in the Soviet Union's boxing life therefore Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan became also the bests in the Asian continent as well. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan all had powerful boxers and some of their athletes could reach also the top of the continent. DPR Korea's rising star Choi Chol Su proved top performance in the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games where he defeated Hungary's icon Istvan Kovacs and claimed the title in Spain as the only Asian boxer. Besides to DPR Korea’s gold medal further nations from our continent delivered great performance such as Korea, Mongolia, Philippines and Thailand. The next edition of the AIBA World Boxing Championships was held in Tampere, Finland in 1993 when Uzbekistan's Khikmatulla Akhmedov claimed their first silver while Kazakhstan's Vasiliy Zhirov also secured the country's first bronze in the event. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan proved at that early stage their boxer will be strengthen the Asian continent. Record number of boxers competed at the 1994 Asian Boxing Championships in Tehran where Kazakhstan's five boxers Bolat Dzhumadilov, Bolat Niyazymbetov, Nurzhan Smanov, Kanatbek Chagatayev and Arkadiy Topayev won their weight classes. The next edition of the Asian Games was held also in 1994 when Philippines bagged three gold medals while Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Iran and Japan all achieved at least one title in Hiroshima, Japan. Atlanta saw the first boxing tournament in an Olympics when the Asian part of the Soviet Union could take part and all of the five Central Asian nations qualified boxers to the Games in 1996. Vasiliy Zhirov won the historical first gold medal for Kazakhstan while Karim Tulaganov bagged bronze for Uzbekistan in Atlanta. Kyrgyzstan's Andrey Kurnyavka and Tajikistan's Khurshed Khasanov both lost to only the eventual winners in Atlanta and Asia proved its strength with its new nations. Uzbekistan proved memorable performance in the 1999 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Houston where two of their boxers claimed gold medal. Sydney was the most successful Asian Olympics until 2000 when our continent claimed four gold medals in Australia. Yermakhan Ibraimov of Kazakhstan, Bekzat Sattarkhanov of Kazakhstan, Wijan Ponlid of Thailand and Makhammatkodir Abdullayev of Uzbekistan all secured gold medals in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Short after his Olympic title Bekzat Sattarkhanov passed away at the age of 19 due a fatal car crash. The first Asian hosted AIBA World Boxing Championships was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003 where the host nation’s pride Somjit Jongjohor won the title. China received the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games in 2001 therefore Mianyang was selected to host the AIBA World Boxing Championships in 2005 to improve the Asian country’s experience. Zou Shiming claimed gold medal in the final which was his first major success during his career. The AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships also moved to Asia as New Delhi hosted the event in 2006 and a Chinese city Ningbo in 2008. The most successful Asian performance in the history of the Olympic Games was delivered in Beijing in 2008 when China claimed two gold medals; Zou Shiming and Zhang Xiaoping both were able to win their weight classes. Kazakhstan’s Bakhyt Sarsekbayev delivered a further victory at the Welterweight class (69 kg) which is his nation’s traditionally strong category. Mongolia’s first gold medal in boxing was delivered by Enkhbat Badar-Uugan while Thailand continued its amazing gold medal series in the Olympics when Somjit Jongjohor could win the Flyweight class (51 kg). Anwar Chowdhry of Pakistan led the International Boxing Association until 2006 when Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu of Chinese Taipei changed his position as President. The Asian Boxing Confederation has been formed in 2007 while the key persons in Asia's management were Mr. Beket Mahmutov of Kazakhstan, Mr. Chang Jianping of China and Mr. Gofur Rakhimov of Uzbekistan in the recent decade. New nations joined to the elite of the continent such as Turkmenistan which country claimed its first gold in 2009 ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships in Zhuhai where Serdar Hudayberdiyev was able to win a title. Jordan’s capital city Amman hosted the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships in 2013 where Kyrgyzstan’s first historical gold was achieved by Azat Usenaliev. In the current Olympic era Kazakhstan topped the team rankings in the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Almaty in 2013. It was the very first time when an Asian nation could secure such a big success in the medal standings of an AIBA event. Among the developing nations of the Asian continent, Afghanistan, Nepal, Vietnam also claimed medals in the recent ASBC events which show the strength of our region. AIBA Vice-President Mr. Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan was a great boxer and has got experiences in several areas whilst since 2014 he leads the Asian Boxing Confederation as President. The current Executive Director of the Asian Boxing Confederation is Mr. Bagdaulet Turekhanov of Kazakhstan. .