October’s World Military Games in Korea saw 172 boxers from 44 nations take to the ring at the National Sports Centre in Yeongju, with traditional powerhouses such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Mongolia, India and China sending strong boxing squads to compete. In total, three stars from the World Series of Boxing brought home gold medals.

Among those to emerge from the Games with their reputations enhanced was Kazakhstan’s 22-year-old National Welterweight Champion Aslanbek Shymbergenov. The WSB Astana Arlans boxer defeated Korea’s National Sports Festival winner Lee Dong Jin in the semi-finals to set up a golden showdown with Russian Albert Karibyan, taking the title with a near-flawless tactical performance.

Russian Karen Arutyunyan knocked down his Korean opponent Yeon Seong Mo in just four minutes to land flyweight gold and the third title for WSB representatives went to China’s Mou Haipeng, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Kamshybek Konkabayev in the final of the super heavyweight class.

The host nation took three golds, with Park Jung Woong defeating his main rival Valentin Chebochakov of Russia early in the light flyweight preliminary rounds and eventually overcoming Brazil’s two-time Olympian Paulo Carvalho in the final. Home-crowd favourites Kim Ju Seong and Yang Hee Guen took the bantamweight and light heavyweight titles respectively.

“I’ve had some injuries in recent years so I am very happy with my performance in the World Military Games. My expectations were high on home soil but comebacks are not so easy at international level. I had four strong opponents but my tactics were solid,” said Korea’s Kim Ju Seong after his success in the bantamweight final.

Champions from the 2015 World Military Games

 49 kg: Park Jung Woong, Korea

 52 kg: Karen Arutyunyan, Russia

 56 kg: Kim Ju Seong, Korea

 60 kg: Yahia Abdeli, Algeria

 64 kg: Yeldos Sarkulov, Kazakhstan

 69 kg: Aslanbek Shymbergenov, Kazakhstan

 75 kg: Radzhab Radzhabov, Russia

 81 kg: Yang Hee Guen, Korea

 91 kg: Hassan Chagtemi, Tunisia

 +91 kg: Mou Haipeng, China

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