Who says boxing is only a physical sport? Ask India's world-class boxing breed and they will tell you that the mind is equally important
Who says boxing is only a physical sport? Ask India's world-class boxing breed and they will tell you that the mind is equally important. In fact, that is something they apply even more than their punches inside the ring and the results are there for all to see.
As many as five Indian pugilists made it to the Asian Games finals in their respective weight categories with impressive and more importantly intelligently fought battles at the Foshan Lingnan Mingzhou Gymnasium yesterday.
Led by Beijing bronze medal-winning boxer Vijender Singh (75kg), Vikas Krishan (60kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg), Santosh Kumar Virothu (64kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) made it to the gold medal match riding high on what they call 'boxing intelligence.'
"Full credit to our coach Iglesias Fernandez, who told me not to lose my cool despite being a point behind at the end of the first round (1-2). It helped me get a measure of my opponent and then come back hard at him in Round Two (4-2) and then go all out in Round Three," Vijender said after he beat Iran's Mohammad Sattarpour 10-7 to set up a date with world champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan in the final.
MeditationVijender was given a two-point penalty twice in his semi-final at the Commonwealth Games for holding his English opponent Anthony Ogogo.
"I lost my cool and paid the price. But now, our Federation's secretary Col PK Muralidharan Raja has introduced us to meditation and that is really helping us keep our minds relaxed and in control at all times," added the World No 1 boxer.
Following in Vijender's footsteps is another boxer, who also hails from Bhiwani and belongs to the Bhiwani Boxing Club.
"I deliberately adopted a defensive strategy here and it has helped for me so far. My strategy was to keep a distance from him and just go in slowly and attack only when it mattered," said Krishan, who beat Uzbekistan's Hurshid Tojibaev 7-0.u00a0 Dinesh Kumar then punched his way to a 7-1 win against Nepal's Deepak Maharajan, an opponent whom he could have floored with his punches, if he wanted to. "I knew he was not a very famous opponent, so I took it easy. He was swinging blindly and I had to avoid it and keep scoring slowly," said Dinesh.
Santosh Kumar also stood out with his unique and aggressive fighting style. "I'm a huge Muhammad Ali fan. I have watched his videos on the internet. I love his movements and left jab. It is something I try to do," said Santosh who beat Thailand's Wuttichai Masuk 5-1.
Finally, Manpreet Singh smashed his way to a 10-2 victory over Tajikistan's Jakhon Qurbonov.
National coach GS Sandhu summed up the team's performance. "In Doha, we won only two bronze medals and in the 2002 Busan Asiad we had no medals in boxing.
"And here, we are in line for five golds, so it's a great achievement. These boys have worked hard and the all around game ufffd both physical and mental ufffd is the result of that."
