The 21-year-old boxer, who hails from Bhiwani, made his way into the 54 kg category semi-finals after causing one of the major upsets in the 21st edition of the tournament as he thrashed the Rio Olympics silver medallist and strong medal contender Yoel Finol (Venezuela) 5-0.

The Indian will take on Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan in a fight on Thursday or a place in the final.

The 20-year-old young Kazakh sealed his spot in the last four after outclassing Brazil’s Michael Trinidade.

Akash 's four other teammates -Sanjeet, Narender Berwal, Shiva Thapa, and Nishant Dev, crashed out of the championship after losing their respective quarter-finals bout played late on Tuesday night.

The seasoned boxer Shiva Thapa went down to Turkey’s Kerem Oezmen 0-5 in the 63.5kg Last-8 match while it was yet another quarter-final heartbreak for the reigning Asian champion Sanjeet. The Indian conceded a 0-5 loss against Italy’s Aziz Abbes Mouhiidine after suffering a biceps injury in the first round during the 92kg contest.

In the last edition of the championships in 2019 as well, Sanjeet had exited in the quarter-finals stage.

Narender (+92kg) and Nishant (71kg) also lost to Azerbaijan’s Mahammad Abdullayev and Russia’s Vadim Musaev respectively in their quarter-finals.

With a place in the semi-finals, debutant Akash joined an elite list of medal-winning Indian pugilists at the world’s one of biggest boxing events.

Amit Panghal (silver in 2019), Vijender Singh (bronze in 2009), Vikas Krishan (bronze in 2011), Shiva Thapa (bronze in 2015), Gaurav Bidhuri (bronze in 2017), and Manish Kaushik (bronze in 2019) have won medals for the country at the Championships in the past.

The gold medallists of each category will receive $100,000 while silver and bronze medallists will be given $50,000 and $25,000 respectively. Alongside an enormous prize pool of $2.6 million.

AIBA will also award the winners with beautifully designed medals, made of gold and silver respectively, and belts to commemorate their accomplishments.