Boxer Vijender Singh stamps his author India's poster boy of boxing, Vijender Singh, will never forget last night's inaugural Percept-organised Fight Night for two reasons or rather two punches!
But the manner in which the Beijing Olympic bronze medallist emerged from the blows thereafter to clinch the bout and with it the Lagaan Cup spoke volumes of his ability as a true fighter.
Team India's captain Vijender Singh holds the Lagaan Cup trophy at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune yesterday.
Taking on a comparatively more muscular Frank Buglioni in the fourth and final bout with Team India leading 2-1 in the four-bout event against boxers from the United Kingdom, Vijender was his typical calm and composed self as he entered the rink amidst thunderous applause in front of a packed house at the Balewadi Sports Complex's boxing arena.
Much to everyone's expectation, the World No 1 was spot on with his opening blows and took an impressive 4-1 lead at the end of Round One.
However, Buglioni emerged a different boxer after the fight resumed. Even as Vijender looked a tad complacent as he consistently kept poking at his opponent, the Englishman retracted, then took a giant stride forward and with full force landed a right hand into Vijender's jaw.
The Indian was shocked and went into a momentary daze even taking a couple of drunken steps soon after. u00a0 But even as the stadium went dead silent as the referee gave Vijender a standing count, the Indian quickly regained his composure and turned
He began poking at his opponent once again and soon landed a couple of quick blows to take a 6-1 lead. Once again, Vijender looked to relax a bit only to invite blow No 2, which nearly knocked him off his feet.
Vijender was bleeding from his nose but his consistent scoring meant Buglioni had a black eye too. The bell literally brought sanity to the situation.
At his best
In the third and final round, Vijender was his champion self once again as he consistently kept throwing effective punches to garner points while this time making sure he avoided Buglioni's power-packed right hand and came off with a 13-4 victory.
The Indian camp and Vijender himself however know that it was no easy win. "I was nervous for Vijender," national boxing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu, who was following every second of the action anxiously from the red corner, told MiD DAY after the fight. "But Viju emerged strongly from the situation.
He is a champion after all," he added.
As for Vijender, the re-appearance of that multi-crore smile, said it all. "It was close.
Thankfully the bleeding (of the nose) has stopped. Ab theek hoon (I'm fine now). u00a0 Hota hai, boxing hai, chalta hai (these things happen in boxing)," he said even as he stepped on to the stage to accept the winning captain's cheque of Rs 2,50,000 for Team India's efforts.
Earlier, India's Jai Bhagwan beat Antonio Counihan 8-2 in the Lightweight 60 kg category, before Manpreet Singh went down 6-11 to Daniel Price in the Heavyweight 91kg category and Dilbagh Singh thumped Ryan Aston 12-5 to win the Welterweight 69 kg category.
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