Vijender's move to turn pro surrounded by controversy

Vijender Singh

Indian boxing has been more in the news for controversies off the ring. And for a change, the sport has grabbed the eyeballs for the right reasons with the country’s ace boxer Vijender Singh turning pro. In normal circumstances, Vijender’s transition from an amateur boxer to a professional boxer would have been welcomed from all quarters, but the manner in which the whole thing panned out left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

The fact that Vijender will shun boxing under the India colours is irrelevant if you look at the circumstances in which Vijender took the ‘pro’ route. Normally, a boxer voicing his desire to turn pro is nothing but a step towards seeking greener pastures as pro boxing offers more moolah, fame, among other benefits.

Unconfirmed sources say that Vijender’s case has generated more controversy simply because the ace pugilist was training in Patiala with the national team until the middle of June for the Asian Championships as well as the 2015 AIBA World Championships to be held later this year and had secured permission from Indian boxing head coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu to train in the UK for two weeks to train in a more competitive environment.

It is learnt that Vijender has obtained permission to train in the UK from June 25 to July 12 and was to rejoin the Patiala camp on July 13 and also take part in the selection trials for the upcoming Asian Championships on July 14.

Vijender signing with reputed British boxing promoter Francis Warren, touted as one of UK’s biggest boxing promoters, who also manages the likes of Dereck Chisora and Amir Khan, is a good augury, but the big question is why the star boxer made it open about his plans to turn pro during the national camp in Patiala.

Did Vijender turn pro because of reluctance to move to a higher weight category

One is not sure whether the Indian boxing body will be left with eggs on their face with Vijender turning pro after going to the UK on the pretext of opting for advanced training. It has to be understood that Vijender has not been at his best in recent times – he managed a silver at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and missed the 2014 Asiad owing to an injury.

Achievement-wise, Vijender’s medal cabinet has everything he can be proud about. 2008 Beijing Olympic bronze medallist, 2009 World Championship bronze medallist, three Commonwealth Games medals (silver in 2006, bronze in 2010, silver in 2014), two Asian Games medals (bronze in 2006, gold in 2010, silver) – he also turned world number one in the middle-weight category in 2009.

Off late, he had been jostling with Vikas Krishnan Yadav, who won the gold in the same weight category in the 2010 Asiad and Bronze in 2014 Commonwealth Games (CWG). Krishnan had boxed in the CWG only because Vijender was unfit. It could be possible that Vijender was reluctant to shift to a higher weight category and probably knew he could not persist in the middle-weight category as Vikas Krishnan Yadav was doing well whenever he got an opportunity.

Indian boxing has heard of Rajkumar Sangwan, Venkatesh Devarajan and Gurcharan Singh walked the ‘pro boxing’ path and there is nothing wrong in it. But the whole development could have been handled better with the boxer telling the concerned authorizes upfront about ‘pro turning’ plans.