Success for Indian Olympic Boxing Team at 2012 Olympics Could Lead to Professional Boxing Explosion
At the 20o8 Olympics, India won its first ever boxing medal when Vijender Singh captured a bronze at middleweight. Singh, who will make his third trip to the Olympics, returns as something of a sports star in his homeland, and is coming off of big gold medal-wins at the 2010 Commonwealth and Asian games to boot. If anything, Singh’s chances for bagging a medal in London look better than they were in Beijing.
Yet Singh is only one of what is currently a five-man squad going to the London Games: Devendro Singh at light flyweight; Jai Bhagwan at lightweight; Manoj Kumar at light welterweight; and Vikas Krishan Yadav at welterweight. Like Singh, light welterweight Manoj Kumar (not to be confused with the Bollywood actor) won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and Yadav is emerging from a very distinguished background in the international youth amateur circuit. Jai Bhagwan and Devendro Singh earned their berths by upsetting several higher ranked rivals. More Indian fighters may yet qualify and go to London.
Fans of professional boxing should pay close attention to how the Indian squad does at the 2012 London Games, because sports fans in India certainly will be. Earning good results in London could parlay into much greater exposure for boxing in India, which in turn might very possibly lead to India making quite a splash in professional boxing down the road.
Remember that there was no professional boxing industry in the former Communist Bloc prior to 1989 and 1991. With the fall of Communism, many Eastern European amateur stars turned pro. Now Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Romanian and other former Communist Bloc boxers are fixtures on the world pro scene, and it would be impossible to imagine boxing today without them.
Just because India is only now making ripples in Olympic boxing does not mean that a big splash in professional boxing might not be right around the corner. Consistent success at a high profile venue like the Olympics can only help to fertilize the growth of the sport, amateur and professional, back in India. The growth of boxing in a country with a population of over one billion can only mean more talent taking the sport by storm.
Why Bother With India? What About China?
Some will ask in response to this call for attention on India “What about China? It’s as big as India, and the People’s Republic won four medals in their own backyard last time around, two of them golds.” To that I say that China has a strong national boxing squad, but that China lacks a professional sports industry, and will probably continue to lack a real pro sports scene for some time to come.
Meanwhile, the idea of having professional athletes is hardly as foreign to India, as anyone can find out simply by searching “Indian cricket” or “India and golf” on the internet. China could translate its amateur success into professional boxing power, but only after either the Communist regime falls or the regime allows the development of a broad professional sports industry in China. India already has a professional sports tradition, so I would not be surprised to see Indian world champions in the near future, and some of them might come out of the London 2012 boxing squad.
