The Heydar Aliyev Cup International Tournament for the junior boxers (boys), is back on the calendar after a three-yearbreak due the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, the tournamentgathered 101 boxers from 11 countries. Boxers from Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are participating in Baku. The competition which started on March 28, will last five days. All 13 final bouts will be held on Saturday, April 1st.
The tournament was first held as the President’s Cup back in 2003. From inception, it was organised for the Junior Boys age group. Attended mostly by ex-Soviet Union countries, this competition was always strong with good quality boxing, which is expected with the countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, etc. The Boxing Federation of Azerbaijan has a lot of experience in organizing boxing events, and this time there is no difference.
Through the years, many young boxers fought at this tournament. Some of them later achieved great elite results on the international level, such as Azerbaijani TeymurMammadov who was European champion, World vice-champion and Olympic Games bronze medallist, Ukrainian Ievgen Khytrov – 2011 World champion, Russian Artem Agayev – 2022 European champion (representing Serbia), Irish Joe Ward who was three times European champion and two times World champion, Indian Shiva Tapa who was Asian champion and World bronze medallist, just to mention few.
