Arguably Vijender Singh's toughest professional bout yet against Tanzania's Francis Cheka was an anti-climax to say the least. A fight which was touted to last the distance, couldn't even go past the three round mark with the 31-year old extending his unbeaten streak to 8-0. However, Vijender himself admitted that he didn't expect such an easy fight either.
Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda after the fight, he said, “I'll be honest, none of my opponents have trash-talked as much as Francis did. Friends and well-wishers often texted me stating that be careful of this guy. Also, the amount of bad-mouthing he did, I felt this would be my toughest fight yet. But, in the first round itself I realised that he was a relatively easy opponent. The showboating was an indication of me trying to show that this was my time. He had his time outside the ring, my time was inside the ring.”
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Vijender, who took less than 10 minutes to defend his WBO Asia pacific title for the first time was also unhappy about the unfair means Cheka was using. He added, “Cheka attempted to bite me on multiple occasions during the fight. Hence, that made me angrier, you have to beat me, beat me, but don't use unfair means. We had our game plan in place and we executed accordingly. I'll be honest even I didn't expect it to finish this early. We had chalked out a round to round plan and it worked I guess.”
He is now targeting two new titles in 2017, such as the Intercontinental and Commonwealth Belts. IOS Boxing Promotions MD, Neerav Tomar said, “It's a step by step process and we are now looking at other countries to expand apart from other cities in India as well. Cities such as Chennai and Mumbai are also in the shortlist. A fight in Leicester could be on the cards, also Vijender stays there, apart from the massive Indian population. There is also a good Russian boxer, with whom Vijender could fight next as well. A lot of things are in the pipeline.”
The current Commonwealth Title holder is England’s Luke Blackledge who has 22 wins in his 27 fight pro-boxing career so far.
An official from Queensbury promotions also confirmed a title bout in Europe. He said, “Vijender will most probably fight for a European title in three months time. We are targetting February or March to set this up somewhere in the UK.”
On a parting note, Vijender reiterated that he would like to dedicate this victory to the Indian Army. He added, “I'm deeply saddened by the incident that took place in Jammu and Kashmire today, where 3 Army Jawans lost their lives. My victory is dedicated to them, without them I would cease to exist.”
