India's male boxers face challenges of transition

GREATER NOIDA: India's men's boxing team is going through a transitional phase with some veteran boxers making way for a younger lot to carry forward the previous gains.

Since the Paris Olympics 2024, the team's results have been mixed, at times underwhelming. The sport's new global governing body, World Boxing, launched a series of World Cups in different continents in 2025, where Indian male pugilists came up with decent performances. But it was the disappointing show at the Liverpool World Championships, which exposed their frailties. They drew a blank there. Out of the 10 boxers, only two — Jadumani Singh (50kg) and Abhinash Jamwal (65kg) – reached the quarterfinals.


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While the ongoing World Boxing Cup (WBC) Finals here is proving to be richly rewarding for the hosts with several boxers ensuring their places in the semifinals, it's the forthcoming tough season next year with Commonwealth (CWG) and Asian Games lined up that has made the boxing administrators and coaches focus more on the male boxers.

“We admit that the World Championships in Liverpool was disappointing for us. We made some technical and tactical mistakes which shouldn't have happened. While some boxers made silly mistakes like letting their guard down when the referee was separating the two boxers, or looked to defend at a time when you should be counter-attacking. I won't name the boxer but in Liverpool, he was looking at the referee when the bout was in full swing,” men's head coach Dharmendra Yadav told TOI here on Monday.

Yadav, who was appointed the head coach ahead of the World Boxing Cup Brazil 2025, said every sport which goes through a transition needs time to produce results. “Now, the younger generation has taken over. Hitesh Gulia, Jadumani Singh, Sumit and others have proved themselves. All these young boxers are a work in progress. They are in their learning phase but are exceptionally talented.Here, at the WBC Finals, our male boxers are proving themselves. They have ensured medals, which is a huge accomplishment. ” he said.


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