Spearheading India’s boxing campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Parveen Hooda assured a medal with a unanimous 5-0 win against Uzbekistan’s Navbakhor Khamidova — a silver medallist at the 2025 World Championships — in the quarter-finals of women’s 65kg. With her victory, India now have assured three medals in boxing — joining Hooda on the list is Commonwealth Games’ silver medallist Narender Berwal, who scored a win over Thailand’s Adthapong Saengtep via RSC, and Ankush Panghal, gold medallist in Glasgow, who defeated Tajikistan’s Nekruz Salimov.

For Hooda, this performance arrives as a shot at redemption. She had won an Asian Games medal in Hangzhou three years ago, but saw it getting chalked off following a suspension by the International Testing Agency for whereabouts failure. The implications of the suspension, however, was not restricted to the continental games — Hooda would also lose her Paris Olympics quota. The Commonwealth Games campaign had not gone according to plans either, where she suffered a defeat against England’s Sacha Hickey in the quarter-final.

On Sunday, however, the 26-year-old did not let ghosts of the past haunt her one bit. Khamidova opted for the aggressive route in the first round, but the Indian kept her at bay, using her left jab and foot movement optimally. Once the Uzbek lost steam, Hooda took control of the proceedings, dominating the lion’s share of the last three rounds.

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“Navbakhor came with a good pedigree in the 65 kg class and she has defeated most of the best boxers in this class in recent months. We were clear that Parveen has to box from a long distance and manage the bout from there,” Hooda’s coach, Santiago Nieva told after the bout. “Sometimes, Parveen has the tendency to rush in a little too much, but she showed the control and balance through her punches. Navbakhor tried to be aggressive in the first round with her overhand right but Parveen thwarted that boxing from distance and was quick to evade her. That meant Navbakhor was left confused and she was trying to counter. But Parveen used her jab as well as her left hook to perfection. In between, she was good with her back right hand punches too and Navbakhor did not have variations of punches today. It was Parveen’s bout to control.”

If not for an upset elsewhere, Parveen would have been staring at a steep challenge against Aida Abikeyeva — gold medallist at the World Championships last year. Instead, she would be facing China’s Li Shu in the semi-final, who defeated the Kazakh pugilist 4-0. Nieva believes his student has the know-how to beat Shu. “The bout between Aida and Shu was very messy and the Kazakh also got a warning. The Chinese did not look very impressive but we will sit down and read her game. Parveen has the game to counter the Chinese,” he said.

While Sunday largely played out how the Indian boxing contingent would have ideally preferred, it did not attain the mark of perfection. Sachin Siwach, fresh off a gold medal at the Glasgow games, suffered a 4-1 defeat against home pugilist Shunsuke Kitamoto.