JOIN USRingside With Vijender — A book excerpt
Rudraneil Sengupta
Juggernaut 2016
For a country that puts up an abysmal performance in most sports, the concept of going professional in a sport is either unknown or considered wrong.
When boxing champion and Olympic medallist Vijender Singh decided to go professional, he had to face a lot of criticism from the media, family, and fans. Ringside with Vijender, the online mini-book, tells the story about the pugilist’s challenging journey in the sport both as an amateur boxer and a professional.
Written by journalist Rudraneil Sengupta, the book lends a peek into Vijender’s life as a boxer and his decision to go professional in 2015. It also dwells upon the issue of doping in the sport. According to Rudraneil, amateur boxing and pro boxing are completely diverse in styles. “If the word boxing wasn’t attached to both, amateur boxing and pro boxing would have very little in common,” he says.
In amateur boxing, the fight is for points, while in pro boxing, the aim is to bring the opponent down. For somebody who was well-entrenched in amateur boxing, Vijender had to unlearn its rules and style for professional boxing. After a career in amateur boxing for 15 years, Vijender decided to go professional on October 10, 2015 at the Manchester Arena. “In India, where most people are yet to grasp the concept of pro boxing, this move is largely seen as one driven by greed; amateur boxing is honourable, a way to represent the nation; pro boxing is mercenary, simply a way to amass wealth,” says Rudraneil.
Vijender’s pro coach Lee Beard, a former amateur boxer-turned-coach, was surprised by the larger reaction to his ward turning into a professional. In boxing, the natural way forward is to go professional, he believes. The author also lends insight into the psyche of boxing. The sport is born out of hardship and violence. To substantiate his point, he mentions the example of Manchester, home to some of the world’s finest boxers. The city’s violent past has something to do with that...
In the 1990s and 2000s, the city was riven with gang wars and drug running. After the Manchester riots, Phil Martin, a former boxer, started a boxing gym called Champ’s Camp in the middle of the combat zone in the city. Moving back and forth, Rudraneil presents a brief but a wide-ranging glimpse into the life of this pugilist.Most Indian sportspeople come from extremely difficult financial backgrounds. If a few Indians have won medals at sporting events, it has largely been their individual efforts battling hindrances in the form of corrupt sporting bodies and their apathy, and lack of facilities, infrastructure and funds. India’s abysmal performance in sports, which was played out at Rio Olympics, is a testimony of this.
Vijender’s story is fraught with difficulties, starting with financial troubles in his early years and subsequently, the battles he had to fight to keep going in his sport.Vijender was born in Kaluwas, a village in Haryana that’s about 10 km from Bhiwani, described as a “nondescript town in Haryana that would become the epicentre of Indian boxing.” His elder brother, Manoj, took to boxing first.
Vijender, as a young lad, wanted to go into cricket, but one needed too much gear. He tried his hand at gymnastics but gave that up and chose boxing. Vijender’s father, Mahipal Singh, a bus driver, took up extra shifts to earn more in order to support his two sons in their pursuit of boxing. Most young boys took up sports primarily with the intention of getting into the armed forces or government jobs. Rudraneil lends an insight into the sport of amateur boxing in India, briefly dwelling on other contemporaries of Vijender. For a mini-book, Ringside with Vijender is an easy read and a story well told.