Top five female Indian boxers all-time

These boxers have won medals for the country on the big stage.

Indian women boxers have taken the game to different zone winning medals at the World stages frequently. Recently Nikhat Zareen won the gold medal in both the Boxing World Championships and the Commonwealth Games and is on the verge of making many records in the future. Mary Kom has set the bar high and actively participated even at the age of 39 with the same power and confidence since she started playing two decades ago. In this article let us discuss the top five female boxers India has produced.

Mary Kom 

Mary Kom is regarded as one of the most decorated athletes and boxers from India having won medals in all the continental events. She was the only female boxer from India to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics and also went on to win the bronze medal. The 39-year-old also represented India at the Tokyo Olympics but couldn't progress to the medal round. At first, she was into athletics but then shifted to boxing after seeing fellow Manipurian Dingko Singh win a medal at the 1998 Asian Games. Since then there was no looking back winning the state boxing championships in 2000.

Achievements

2012 London Olympics (Bronze Medal)

2014 Asian Games (Gold Medal)

Six times World Championships (Gold Medal)

Five times Asian Games (Gold Medal)

One-time Commonwealth Games (Gold Medal)

For her achievements in sports, she was also nominated as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha by the President of India. Also, she was awarded the Padma Vibhushan award which is the second-highest civilian award in India.

Sarita Devi

Sarita Devi from Manipur is a former national and world champion lightweight category. She was the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the World Championships in the 52kg weight category and recently Nikhat Zareen became the second to achieve the feat. Overall the boxer from Manipur has won medals in all the international events she has contested with her career spanning two decades.

A major controversy surrounding Sarita Devi was at the 2104 Asian Games where the judgement went against her favour in the semi-finals due to which she did not accept the bronze medal at the medals ceremony but later accepted it. Due to this act, she was handed a one-year suspension from AIBA.

Lekha KC

Lekha KC is one of the five-woman athletes to win a gold medal for India at the World Boxing Championships. She won the gold medal in the 75kg weight category at the 2006 World Championships. Lekha has won National Championships for six successive years since 2001. Recently in the year 2021, Lekha was awarded the Dhyan Chand award for lifetime achievement.

Jenny RL

Jenny R.L represented India in the 63kg Light Welterweight category in the 2006 Women’s World Boxing Championship, held in New Delhi. She thrived under the support of the home crowd to pull off a remarkable story. Prior to the World Championships, Jenny had also won gold in the 2003 and 2005 Asian Boxing Championships and headed into the 2006 edition full of confidence.

The 39-year-old is a police officer in her home state Mizoram.

Lovlina Borgohain

Lovlina Borgohain from Assam became the second female boxer and third from India to win a medal at the Olympics (2020 Tokyo Olympics). She is a two-time bronze medallist at the 2018 and 2019 World Boxing Championships. Along with winning bronze at World’s, she is also a two-time bronze medallist at the Asian Championships. Since the Tokyo Olympics Lovlina has not performed well on the World stage losing tamely at the Commonwealth and World Championships in 2022.