New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS): India's Nishant Dev put up a brilliant performance to progress into the second round of the 71kg category at the 2021 AIBA Men's Boxing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on Wednesday.

Making debut at the world's prestigious event, the Karnataka boxer looked in good touch against Laszlo Kozak as he hit the aggressive mode from the word go. The 20-year-old reigning national champion dominated his opponent from Hungary with fluent attack and sharp punches before winning the bout comprehensively by unanimous margin.

In the Last-32 stage, Nishant will be up against Mauritian pugilist Merven Clair, who finished in the quarter-finals at the Tokyo Olympics, on Friday.

Later tonight, three more Indian boxers will begin their challenge at the event, which has been witnessing strong competition in presence of 650 top boxers from more than 100 countries playing across 13 weight categories.

While Varinder Singh will take on Karen Tonakanyan of Armenia in the 60kg bout, Lakshya Chahar (86kg) will fight against Kim Hyeongkyu of Korea. Govind Sahani (48kg) is the other Indian pugilist to start campaign tonight as he will play Ortiz Arias of Ecuador.

Earlier in the matches played late on Tuesday, Deepak Bhoria, Sumit and Narender started their campaign with commanding victories. Up against one of the strong contenders for the title, Azat Usenaliev of Kyrgyzstan, Deepak produced a flawless show in the 51kg opening round match. Despite some resistance from the Asian champion Usenaliev, the 24-year-old Indian managed to secure victory by unanimous margin.

Sumit, too, was equally dominant during his 75kg opening round match against Jamaican boxer O'Neill Damon as he notched up an easy 5-0 win. On the other hand, Narender faced some stiff challenge from his Polish opponent Oskar Safaryan in the +92kg bout, however the Indian recorded a convincing 4-1 win.