Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Mohammad Hussamudin (57kg) and Nishant Dev (71kg) signed off with bronze medals at the World Boxing Championships, wrapping up India's best-ever show at the marquee event in Tashkent on Friday.
It was heartbreak for Hussamudin as the Nizamabad boxer was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury about an hour before his semi-final bout.
On the other hand, Deepak's memorable campaign came to end as he went down fighting to two-time World bronze medallist France's Bilal Bennama 3-4 in a close contest which went into bout review.
Nishant's semi-final also went to bout review with the judges ruling in favour of the 2022 Asian champion and 2018 Asian Games silver medallist Aslanbek Shymbergenov of Kazakhstan.
Deepak was named in the squad ahead of 2019 Worlds silver medallist Amit Panghal.
Both boxers were tentative in the beginning, trying to get the measure of their opponents. Deepak was able to land a few punches but Bennama used his left jabs to great effect and took the round 3-2.
Bennama was the aggressor in the second round as he moved around the ring to dodge Deepak's punches but the Indian found a way to breach his defences and land some eye-catching right crosses.
The final three minutes were fought intensely with both boxers throwing punches but the frenchman was successful in blocking Deepak's blows to take the win.
