The 28-year-old, who became the tournament’s most successful male boxer, injured his right knee in the opening seconds of the second round of the light welterweight gold medal bout against Abdullaev Ruslan of Uzbekistan, suffering an RSC loss (the referee stops the contest).
Third-seeded Thapa was trailing when the injury occurred. He had lost the quick opening round 0-5.
The most successful male boxer at the #AsianChampionships- @shivathapa signs with a 🥈! 👏👏 Well done champ 💯… https://t.co/g6NKcDJzVg
— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) 1668254522000
In the first three minutes, the two boxers had tried to assert their authority, even resorting to blows to the body with the Uzbek in the lead.
In the second round, as he tried to catch up, Thapa fell to the canvas after trading a few punches. He managed to get up without any help when the referee gave a count, but the Indian appeared to be in pain as play remained stopped. Thapa then received medical attention as the ring doctor examined his right knee.
Eventually the fight was called off as Thapa walked away. The veteran boxer even struggled to get up as the referee announced the winner.
The final will leave a bad taste, in an otherwise faultless Thapa campaign.
His track record now includes one gold medal (2013), three silver medals (2017, 2021 and 2022) and two bronze medals (2015 and 2019).
With the silver, Thapa passed Kazakh legend Vassiliy Levit, an Olympic silver medalist and two-time world bronze medalist, who was the only other male pugilist with five medals at the Asian Championships.
MC six times world champion Mary Kom (7) and L Sarita Devi (8) have more Asian medals than Thapa, the latter having the distinction of winning six in a row, including five gold, at the height of her prowess.
