Bhatinda: The much-anticipated light welter weight quarter final re-bout between Som Bahadur Pun and Manoj Kumar ended in a whimper with the defending champion giving his Railways’ opponent a walkover to the semi-finals of the 55th Senior National Boxing Championships on Thursday.

Pun’s team Services, lodged a protest against the Indian Boxing Federation’s (IBF) decision to hold a re-bout claiming that the international rules governing the sport have no such provision.

Pun was declared winner on Wednesday despite trailing by five points when the referee G Nagpurwala disqualified Manoj for foul-play in the closing stages of the fourth and final round.

Furious with the decision, Railways lodged a protest and after late-night deliberations, the IBF decided to re-play the bout.

Even as Manoj reached the stadium, the Services team refused to turn up despite accepting the IBF decision Wednesday night, leaving the officials with no choice but to award the bout to the Railway-man.