Bulgaria won the medal standings at the WBT Silver Belt tournament in Maribor

October 30th, 2022 / World Boxing Tour

Bulgaria topped the medal standings in the new World Boxing Tour Event in Maribor, Slovenia following which their boxers earned four gold medals. Nineteen boxers celebrated their gold medals after the finals and achieved points in the new IBA World Ranking System.

Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Mozambique, Serbia, and Spain shared the gold medals in Maribor. Armenia was runner-up behind the Bulgarians, their athletes bagged nine medals in Slovenia, including three titles. Fourteen countries took at least one medal in the WBT Tour Silver Event.

Spain opened the finals with two gold medals

Spain had five finalists in the Maribor event and among them, the first two opened the last session of the competition with gold medals. Spanish Carmen Gonzalez is only 20-years-old but she has experience from the youth and U22 competitions. The Spanish minimumweight (48kg) girl was faster than Hungarian Petra Mezei and worked hard until the last moments to take the first gold medal of the WBT event. Her teammate, the defending EUBC European Champion at the men’s flyweight (51kg), Martin Molina had a tough battle against Ibrahim Boukedim from France but his excellent finish was enough to beat his 21-year-old opponent.

Mozambique earned three women titles in Maribor

Mozambique is one of the openings of the year, their girls opened their strong campaigns at the African regional championships, then two of the promising boxers earned historic medals in the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships. Alcinda Panguana and Rady Adosinda Gramane continued their winning paths at the Commonwealth Games, AFBC African Elite Boxing Championships and took the titles in Maribor as well. Mozambique’s youngest participant among the girls, Helena Bagao was not able to find the best fighting distance against Hungary’s Hajnalka Sipos in the first round of their flyweight (52kg) final, but she turned up the heat in the second. Bagao received the right instructions in the first break and her rhythm switch delivered a quick RSC victory for the boxer from Mozambique in the second round.

Radev and Rosenov are Bulgaria’s young stars

Bulgarian Yasen Radev earned gold medals at the 2019 and 2020 editions of the EUBC Youth European Boxing Championships and the 20-year-old talent won his first major elite competition in Maribor. Radev was not experienced among the elite boxers yet such as the 2017 World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Tamir Galanov of Serbia but he looked fresh and energetic from the first seconds. Radev had a comfortable unanimous victory in this bantamweight (54kg) final and proved his great potential for the future events. His teammate, the even younger 19-year-old Radoslav Rosenov won all of his European titles in the junior, youth and U22 age groups but Maribor delivered for him a gold medal at the elite competition after beating Armenian Narek Hovhannisyan.

Bazeyan and Hovhannisyan amazed the experts in Maribor

Armenia’s EUBC European U22 Champion Artur Bazeyan failed to get a medal in the annual EUBC European Men’s Elite Boxing Championships in Yerevan on home soil but his progress guaranteed a gold medal for the youngster at the men’s featherweight (57kg). Bazeyan had a tough final opponent, Spain’s European Games winner Gabriel Escobar but his tactics worked properly in all of the three rounds to take the gold medal. His teammate, the 21-year-old Rafayel Hovhannisyan is a strong puncher and stopped Mozambique’s Julio Gabriel Albino, the AFBC African Champion in the final of the cruiserweight (86kg).

Veocic and Hagag won the tightest finals of the last competition day

Croatian Gabrijel Veocic moved forward in the age groups step by step and he was already a quarter-finalist at the recent World Boxing Championships in Belgrade. He moved up to the light heavyweight (80kg) and won one of the best contests of the last session against Gazimagomed Jalidov. The Austrians built up a new team and their boxer Ahmed Hagag earned a historic gold at the EUBC U22 European Boxing Championships and a fantastic bronze at the EUBC European Men’s Elite Boxing Championships in 2022. Following his 19-year-old teammate, Malik Dadaev’s title at the men’s lightweight (60kg), Hagag defeated Croatia’s Luka Pratljacic in the final of the super heavyweight (+92kg).

“I am very happy to have this tournament in Slovenia, I am very proud of it because we made it on the highest level, professional level. And I hope we will continue with this tournament next year. There were a lot of difficulties when we started to organize the event. I had no people, no organization team. It was only me and the Secretary General, Nika Reher, who organized everything – logistics, accommodations, visas. We did all alone. And I must say if the Secretary General was not here this all would not happen. I want to raise boxing to a higher level in Slovenia because boxing is not so popular here. And I said to myself that we must do this. I know that the first time is always very difficult but I know next year it will be much much better. Talking about our future plans, we will apply to host European Junior Championships next year and also for the WBT Golden belt”. Robert Reher, President of Slovenian Boxing Association, said.

The list of the winners in Maribor

Women’s 48kg: Carmen Gonzalez, Spain

Women’s 52kg: Helena Bagao, Mozambique

Women’s 60kg: Rebeka Dobos, Hungary

Women’s 66kg: Luca Hamori, Hungary

Women’s 70kg: Alcinda Panguana, Mozambique

Women’s 75kg: Rady Adosinda Gramane, Mozambique

Men’s 48kg: Ergyunal Sebahtin Sabri, Bulgaria

Men’s 51kg: Martin Molina, Spain

Men’s 54kg: Yasen Radev, Bulgaria

Men’s 57kg: Artur Bazeyan, Armenia

Men’s 60kg: Malik Dadaev, Austria