Paul captures World Champs bronze after semi-final defeat

NIGEL PAUL captured Trinidad and Tobago’s first-ever International Boxing Association World Championships medal when he claimed bronze in the super heavyweight +92kg semi-finals in Serbia on Thursday.

At the Stark Arena in Belgrade, Paul lost on points against Russian Federation’s Mark Petrovskii.

Petrovskii won 4-1 against Paul with the judges scoring 29-28 (Kazakhstan), 30-27 (Morocco), 29-28 (Argentina) and 30-27 (Japan) in favour of the Russian. The Irish judge (29-28) was the only one to find favour in Paul’s performance at the end of three rounds.

The TT Olympian lost the opening round with four of the five judges ruling in favour of Petrovskii. He fared better in the second round but only two judges would give him the nod over the Russian.

In the final round, Paul fought valiantly but was also on the receiving end of some powerful blows from Petrovskii. Paul however, knocked the Russian to his knees in the dying seconds but it was not enough.

A constant flurry of on-target punches from Petrovskii in the last round bettered Paul’s late surge and secured the Russian a spot in the super heavyweight final against Aremenian Chaloyan Davit.

Although Paul lost his semi-final bout, the TT boxer still received bronze, along with other losing semi-finalist, Mahammad Abdullayev (Azerbaijan). Both losing semi-finalists earned bronze medals since there is no third place bout.

Paul’s performance brought an end to TT’s Worlds’ campaign which also featured national boxers Aaron Prince, Donnel Phillip, Anthony Joseph and Blessing Waldropt, who all lost their opening bouts and were eliminated prior.