Baku:
India's Thokchom Nanao Singh (48kg) bowed out of the President's Cup Boxing tournament after he lost his quarterfinal bout against Luis Miguel Diaz of Dominican Republic here on Tuesday.
Representing the Asia One team, the 19-year-old world number eight, who is a former youth world champion, went down 5-8 to Diaz at the Serhedchi Olympic Sport Complex here.
Diaz, who is representing Americas Two team in the inter-continental tournament, is a bronze medallist from the same youth tournament where Nanao won a gold last year.
Nanao, an Asian silver medallist, trailed from the very start and was 0-2 down after the first round. He opened his scoring in the second round but the deficit kept piling and Nanao trailed 2-6 at the end of it.
The Indian gave it his all in the final three minutes, landing three scoring punches, but Diaz's two points in the final round were enough to end the Indian's campaign.
Tomorrow, the other Indian in the fray, Suranjoy Singh (51kg), who is a reigning Asian champion, will take on Olympic bronze medallist Vincenzo Picardi in his opening bout, which happens to a be a quarterfinal.
The President's Cup is a unique tournament where confederations from Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Oceania are pitted against each other. Each time a boxer wins a bout, he earns three points for his team.
Matches that end in a draw will be decided by the judges' accepted scores but the losing boxer will win one point for his team.
Gold medal winners from each weight category will get a cash prize of USD 3,000 and the winning Confederation will be awarded USD 50,000.
India's Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh (75kg) had won a bronze for the country in the inaugural edition of the event last year.