Boxing in India

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Boxing in India
Vijender boxing.jpg
CountryIndia
Governing body Boxing Federation of India
National team(s) India

In India, the sport of boxing is governed by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI). The majority of boxing in India occurs nationally and internationally as amateur boxing, with only a few boxers opting to pursue professional boxing. This has been attributed to a lack of promotional companies, facilities, and revenue. However, India is a regular medal-holder at international tournaments including the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, and Olympics. Boxing has been rising in popularity in certain states, particularly in Haryana. The Bhiwani Boxing Club in Bhiwani, Haryana has produced medalists in various weight classes. [1] [2]

Contents

Notable boxers and boxing victories

India's Mary Kom is a six-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. [3] She also became the first Indian woman boxer to get a Gold Medal at the Asian Games during the 2014 Asian Games at Incheon, South Korea. [4]

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Vijender Singh won a bronze medal in the middleweight boxing category, while Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar qualified for the quarterfinals. Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar, A.L. Lakra, and Dinesh Kumar each won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Championship. [5]

Vijender Singh briefly reached World No.1 in the middle weight (75 kg) category class in 2009, when the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) list was updated after 2009 AIBA World Boxing Championships held in Milan, where he won India's first medal in an AIBA-WBC. [6] On 29 June 2015, Vijender Singh bid adieu to his amateur career by turning professional as he signed a multi-year agreement with Queensberry Promotions through IOS Sports and Entertainment. This ruled him out of 2016 Olympics as he no longer remained eligible to represent India.

Total medals won by Indian Boxers in Major tournaments

CompetitionGoldSilverBronzeTotal
Olympic Games 0033
World Boxing Championships 1493053
Asian Games 9173561
Commonwealth Games 11132044
Asian Championships 304668144
Total6485156305

Notable Performance at Summer Olympics

YearEventPlayerResult
2000
Light heavyweight Gurcharan Singh Quarter-finals
2008
Middleweight Vijender Singh Bronze medal icon.svg
Flyweight Jitender Kumar Quarter-finals
Bantamweight Akhil Kumar Quarter-finals
2012
Women's flyweight Mary Kom Bronze medal icon.svg
Men's light flyweight Devendro Singh Quarter-finals
Men's middleweight Vijender Singh Quarter-finals
2016
Men's middleweight Vikas Krishan Yadav Quarter-finals
2020
Women's welterweight Lovlina Borgohain Bronze medal icon.svg
Women's middleweight Pooja Rani Quarter-finals
Men's super heavyweight Satish Kumar Quarter-finals
2024
Men's 71 kg Nishant Dev Quarter-finals
Women's 75 kg Lovlina Borgohain Quarter-finals

In 2014, Priyanka Chopra portrayed Mary Kom in an award winning biographical film about her life. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhiwani district</span> District of Haryana in India

Bhiwani district is one of the 22 districts of the northern Indian state of Haryana. Created on 22 December 1972, it was the largest district of the state by area, before the creation of Charkhi Dadri as a separate district, as it occupied an area of 4,778 square kilometres (1,845 sq mi) and administered 442 villages with a population of 1,634,445. Sirsa is now the largest district of the state.

Bhiwani is a city and a municipal council in Bhiwani district in the state of Haryana. Besides being a seat of spiritual learning, the city is at the centre of regional politics and hometown of three former Haryana chief ministers: Bansi Lal, Banarsi Das Gupta and Hukum Singh. It is located 128 km west of national capital New Delhi.

Jitender Kumar is an Indian boxer who has medaled twice at Commonwealth Games and represented India in both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akhil Kumar</span> Indian boxer

Akhil Kumar is an Indian boxer who has won several international and national boxing awards. He practices an "open guarded" boxing style. In 2005, the Indian government gave him the Arjuna Award for his achievements in international boxing. In March 2017, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, appointed Akhil Kumar along with Mary Kom as national observers for boxing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vijender Singh</span> Indian boxer

Vijender Singh Beniwal is an Indian professional boxer and politician of Bharatiya Janata Party. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, becoming the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal. He also won bronze medals at the 2009 World Championships and the 2010 Commonwealth Games, as well as silver medals at the 2006 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, all in the middleweight division.

Jitender Kumar is an Indian flyweight boxer. He won the bronze medal in the flyweight category at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He represented India at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Jagdish Singh is an Indian boxer and a boxing coach from Bhiwani district of the Indian state of Haryana. He founded the Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC) in 2003, which produced four members of the five member boxing team in Beijing Olympics 2008, including the bronze medal winner, Vijender Singh. His five students received Arjun Award. Such as Akhil Kumar 2005, Vijender Singh 2006, Dinesh Kumar 2010, Vikas Krishan Yadav 2012, Kavita Chahal 2013.

Honorary Captain Hawa Singh was an Indian Heavyweight boxer, who dominated Indian and Asian amateur boxing for a decade in his weight class. He won the Asian Games gold medal in the Heavyweight category in consecutive editions of the games, in the 1966 Asiad and the 1970 Asiad both held in Bangkok, Thailand - a feat unmatched by any Indian boxer to date. He won the National Championships in the Heavyweight category a record 11 consecutive times — from 1961 to 1972.

The Bhiwani Boxing Club in Bhiwani in the state of Haryana, India came to the limelight in 1982 as four of the five boxers who represented India at the 2000 Summer Olympics are from Bhiwani. The Sports Authority of India coach and boxer Jagdish Singh has been credited with making the Bhiwani Boxing Club, or "BBC" as it is known locally, a powerhouse of Indian Boxing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Kom</span> Indian boxer (born 1982)

Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer to win eight World Championship medals. Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she was the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she competed in the flyweight (51 kg) category and won a bronze medal. She had also been ranked as the world's No. 1 female light-flyweight by the International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA). She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is also the only boxer to become Asian Amateur Boxing Champion for a record six times. Mary Kom won the 51kg gold in President's Cup in Indonesia.

Thokchom Nanao Singh is an Indian boxer from Khoijuman Maning Leikai village in Bishnupur district of Manipur. He trains at Pune-based Army Sports Institute and is supported by Olympic Gold Quest, a not-for-profit foundation to identify and support Indian athletes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vikas Krishan Yadav</span> Indian boxer (born 1992)

Vikas Krishan Yadav is an Indian boxer from Bhiwani district in Haryana, the hub of some of India's best boxers. He won a gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games in the Lightweight category and a gold medal in 75 kg weight category at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He is one of the best boxers of India. He also boxed professionally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinki Jangra</span> Indian boxer (born 1990)

Pinki Rani Jangra is a flyweight Indian boxer from Hisar, Haryana and a four time national champion. She won bronze medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She won gold medal at the President's Cup International Boxing in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2015. She won gold medals at the 2011 National Games of India and the 2012 and 2014 National championships in the flyweight (51kgs) division. She was the only Indian pugilist who bagged the gold medal at the Arafura Games. She signed up with Sporty Boxing Private Limited, which is referred to as the commercial arm of the Indian Boxing Council (IBC), the licensing body for professional boxers in India.

Pooja Rani Bohra is an Indian middleweight boxer. She is two time Asian champion (2019,2021) She won the bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games in the 75 kg category. She won the gold medal in South Asian Games 2016. She also won Silver (2012) and Bronze (2015) in Asian Championship 75 kg weight categories. She represented India at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 in the 75 kg category. In 2016, she failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics when she lost at the second round of the Women's World Boxing Championships in May 2016,She is 7 time National champion also In 2020 She become first Indian to qualify for 2020 Summer Olympics.

Kavita Chahal is a 5' 9" tall heavyweight Indian female boxer and recipient of the highest world ranking 2 from 2012 to 2014 from the village Nimri which resides in the Bhiwani district, Haryana. In recognition of her achievements, the Government of India presented Chahal with the Arjuna Award in 2013. Chahal is the first female boxer from Haryana to be presented with the Arjuna Award. Chahal is a twice-consecutive World Championship medallist, 3 Time Gold medalist in World Police Games. 4-Time Asian championship, Asian cup medallist. With 9 gold medals, she is a record holder in women's national championship boxing. She is a 5-time gold medallist in the Federation Cup, and 7-times Gold medalist in all india police games 2012 to 2018. Chahal 3-time gold medallist in the Inter-zonal Super Cup championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manish Kaushik (boxer)</span> Indian boxer (born 1996)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amit Panghal</span> Indian boxer (born 1995)

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Sonia Lather is an Indian amateur boxer. She was a silver medallist at the 2016 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, and a twice silver medallist at the Asian Amateur Boxing Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lovlina Borgohain</span> Indian boxer (born 1997)

Lovlina Borgohain is an Indian boxer. She won a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in the women's welterweight event, becoming only the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. She won gold medal at 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships and bronze medals at the 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships and the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships. Borgohain is the first female athlete and the second boxer from Assam to represent the state in the Olympics. In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive Arjuna Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sachin Siwach</span> Indian boxer

Sachin Siwach born is an Indian boxer from Bhiwani, Haryana. He became the third Indian to win gold at the World Youth Championship.

References

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  2. M, Hari Kishore (2021-06-02). "Boxing from Bhiwani, India's "mini-Cuba"". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  3. "Magnificent Mary". I See India. Archived from the original on 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  4. "MC Mary Kom delivers first boxing gold at Asian Games 2014" . Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  5. "2008 Summer Olympics Boxing Results - Beijing, China - ESPN". ESPN . Archived from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  6. "Vijender becomes world number one - The Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  7. "MARY KOM | British Board of Film Classification". www.bbfc.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-05-04.