When we talk about the trendsetters and icons in the truest sense of the word, one man has changed the face of not just a sport in the country, but the way over a billion people look at sports as not just a hobby, but as a career option.
While India has produced many talented pugilists, one boxer, in particular, was brave enough to break the norm, and pursue a professional career.
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Well before he turned pro, Vijender Singh made the entire country stand up and take notice of a sport which, till that point, hadn’t received the amount of support it should have. After having a breakthrough year in 2006, Vijender became the first ever Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics, when he won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
While Vijender was showered with honours and awards most of the sportsmen could only dream of, the Haryana native has always kept his feet on the ground and worked to open the doors for the future generations.
Vijender turned pro in 2015 and has since proved that a country of over billion people does have the potential to produce successful boxers at the professional level.
Recently, Vijender returned to India to celebrate the festival of Holi, “Holi was great; I came here after 3 months. I consider myself lucky that I’m celebrating Holi, and I’m with my family and friends. I had a great time at home.”
Vijender in an exclusive interview stated that he is only focusing on what is important, “Right now I’m focusing on my life and my career. I have a couple more fights – two more fights in London, and then the title fight. So I’ve been working towards my goals. I really haven’t been focusing on anything else.”
“After turning professional, my way hasn’t been easy as you’ve seen. But that is how it is.”
Talking about the 11 June WBO Asia title fight in New Delhi, Vijender added, “It’ll be in India; it’s an exciting time because I don’t think a boxing match of this magnitude has ever happened in India.
I believe this will lead to a new revolution in the sport of boxing in the country; pro boxing hasn’t entered the country with such high stakes. Even I’m interested to see what this leads to; I’ve fought four times before – I’ve fought in the United Kingdom, I’ve fought in Ireland. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens when I fight in India.”
Busy schedule coming up for Vijender
Vijender will be fighting thrice in the next three months, and said he doesn’t mind fighting regularly. “I’ve always fought, and wanted to fight a lot. I know that as long as I’m fit, I can fight as many times as I want. I’ve been an amateur boxer, so currently, I’m focusing and working on my fitness.
I already have the basics and the foundation, and I’ve fought for the country for many years on the amateur level. So my current focus is on fitness, and I want to just be fit as much as possible.”
During his visit, Vijender also met with the Prime Minister of India to talk about the state of boxing in the country. While poor conditions continue to persist, Vijender said he was optimistic about the future of the sport in the country.
"What more can I say about the current state of amateur boxing in India? Even you know how it is; for years, it has been a few bunch of people who’ve been running the sport in India. For the next generation to choose boxing as a profession is becoming difficult – they would rather take up jobs than get into boxing because of the status quo. I hope the situation changes for the better; I can only hope that things change for the betterment of the sport.”
“If they want to give me any kind of responsibility, any kind of role (to change things for the better), I’m ready to do it. I’ll be open to take up any kind of work to ensure that the sport gets popular – and primarily gets cleared of the mess it is in. Anyone can get in touch with me at any time.”
Vijender also shed some light on how the issue can be tackled.
“There are a lot of ways you can tackle this issue – you might know it better. One of the ways would be to give the committee that is about to form the complete power. You ask them to take care of the federation; you get invested in making things better. Or you hold elections to elect the people who can figure things out; you have someone like Mr. Gupta who was nominated, he should get the nod, whether you talk about IOA or the Indian ministry.
But it won’t work if you want to keep the ad hoc committee, and also plan to revamp the federation. You either work with the ad hoc committee, or you work with the federation – only one thing can work.”
Vijender also spoke at length about how boxing – as any other sport needs some time to grow in India. “Boxing as a sport is famous all over the world. The only difference with India is that cricket has received a lot of support. If you see in a few other countries, football is more prominent, but they invest their time in boxing too.
Boxing, or for that matter any sport needs time to grow, and you know how boxing is evolving around the world. So boxing would take some time to grow in India, but I know for a fact that the future is bright for boxing in our country.”
Finally, Vijender sent a message to his fans, as well as those who aspire to take up boxing as a profession. “I want to thank everyone for their support and love they’ve sent on my way. For me, I have one job and that is to get in the ring and be the best boxer I can be. I want to tell the aspiring boxers to work hard, and not to go for shortcuts. There are no short cuts in life, just focus on your work and keep working towards your goals.”
Vijender Singh takes on Matiouze Royer on 30 April at the Copper Box Arena.
