World Championship: Mohammed Hussamuddin forfeits semi-final due to knee injury to win bronze

Hailing from a family of boxers, the southpaw is the youngest of six brothers, four of whom have seriously dabbled with the sport.

Mohammed Hussamuddin is one of the three boxers from India to win a medal at the 2023 World Championships.

Mohammed Hussamuddin is the youngest of six brothers, four of whom have seriously dabbled with the sport. (Photo: IBA)

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Mohammed Hussamuddin won a bronze medal at the ongoing IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships after being forced to forfeit his semi-final against Saidel Horta of Cuba in the 57kg weight class on Friday. The pugilist had picked up a knee injury in the quarters after which he had pain and swelling in the knee. After careful and detailed assessment by the medical team, the management decided that he won’t box in the semi final as he could aggravate the injury.

The boxer from Telangana’s Nizamabad thus became one of the only 10 Indian male boxers to have medalled at the World Boxing Championships. Besides Hussamuddin, Deepak Bhoria and Nishant Dev are also going to return from the current Worlds in Tashkent with a medal.

Hailing from a family of boxers, the southpaw is the youngest of six brothers, four of whom have seriously dabbled with the sport. Hussamuddin, whose role model is the two-time Olympic champion Vasyl Lomachenko, was afraid to don the gloves until his father and coach, Mohammad Shamsuddin, got him to shed that fear and taught him the art of boxing at the Collectorate grounds in Nizamabad.

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The 29-year-old went on to overshadow his siblings and establish himself in state-level competitions before moving on to the national scene, where he made his debut in the 2009 junior Nationals at Aurangabad, claiming bronze. He turned it into gold in his debut at the senior nationals.

The boxer’s potential was spotted early and in 2011, he was sent to a fortnight-long stint of training and competition to Havana, Cuba, before participating in the 2012 Tammer Tournament in Finland and later in the Youth World Championship in Yerevan, Armenia.

His barren-run in the international outings ended with bronze at the 2015 Military World Games. Since then, he has been on the up and today he has evolved into one of the finest boxers in the country in his weight category.
With a bronze in Commonwealth Games 2018 and a gold in the Chemistry Cup, Hussamuddin continued to shine and bag silver at the Gee Bee Boxing Tournament in 2019. He won silver at the Boxam International in march 2021 and finished 2022 with bronze medal at CWG and Asian Championships.