BFI President: Ranking rise gives a major boost to Indian boxers

Published at :July 11, 2020 at 5:01 PM

Modified at :July 16, 2020 at 6:01 PM

The Indian boxers have registered some big wins in the last one year.

After a dominating Top-6 performance in back-to-back World Championships and a historic nine Olympic quota haul, Indian boxing’s rise is further validated by the recent world rankings released by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and the president of Boxing Federation of India (BFI) Ajay Singh feels that it will be a big morale booster for players.

In the latest AIBA rankings, 12 Indian pugilists are placed in the Top-10 (eight women, four men) with star boxer Amit Panghal (52kg) at the pinnacle.

Consistency has been the key to this success of the Indian contingent which has been proven time and again in various international and elite level tournaments where Indians have dominated. A rejuvenated and streamlined system with focussed international exposures and experience of fighting top boxers with high-level and competitive domestic tournaments have given Indian boxing the desired fillip under the leadership of Ajay Singh with the inception of BFI in 2016.

“As the BFI President, I have always wanted to see Indian boxers at the pinnacle and it gives me immense satisfaction to see the roadmap unfolding. While these glories of winning medals and topping the rankings are no doubt special, we still remain unwavered in our mission of winning Olympic medals for India,” said BFI President Ajay Singh.

Maintaining his dominance not only in results but also in ranking charts, Amit Panghal continues to lead the pack with a No. 1 position in 52kg. Six-time world champion Mary Kom is placed third in 51kg while a sizzling silver medal-winning debut at the Women’s World Championships catapulted the young Manju Rani to a career-best No. 2 in 48 kg.

Deepak (49kg, 6th), Kavinder Singh Bisht (56kg, 4th), Manish Kaushik (64kg, 6th) are the other Indian men who found a place in the Top-10 while Jamuna Boro (54kg, 5th) Sonia Chahal (57kg, 4th), Simranjit Kaur (64kg, 6th), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg, 3rd), Pooja Rani (81kg, 8th) and Seema Poonia (+81kg, 6th) are the other Indian women pugilists ranked inside first 10.

After three months of confinement due to the pandemic, players who were training at home have slowly started gearing up and will resume training soon.