Out and bout: Rudraneil Sengupta on India’s rising stars in women’s boxing

This is not news. India’s women boxers, like their wrestling counterparts, have shown remarkable consistency and, against considerable odds, remained among the best in the world for almost a decade.

The flame ignited by the incomparable Mary Kom in the Aughts has been carefully kept alive by a succession of talented fighters emerging from an ever-widening talent pool, much of it from that cradle of combat sports: Haryana.

The recent four medals (two gold, one silver and one bronze) do not constitute India’s best performance at world championships. Statistically, the four gold medals won at the 2023 World Championships in Delhi take top spot. But there is a world of difference between home performances and fighting away from home.

For one thing, the four gold medallists in Delhi — Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Saweety Boora and Nitu Ghanghas — could count on overwhelming support from the crowds. In a sport where one must work one’s way through pain, distress and rapidly draining energy resources, that kind of roaring encouragement can serve as fuel.

Then there is the subjective nature of scoring in boxing matches, which has historically led to controversies, and continues to do so.

Given these factors, the 2025 World Championships results acquire greater significance. These are medals won purely on ringcraft, of which the tall, big-boned, fleet-footed Jaismine Lamboria, a first-time gold-medallist at the Worlds, has plenty to spare.

A perpetual-movement machine, Lamboria, 24, is able to control her opponents with ease because of her preternatural reflexes, long reach and, critically, the accuracy of her punches. If she continues to improve and acquire experience as she has been doing, she is a superb potential prospect at the Olympics.

Lamboria comes from a family steeped in boxing. Her great-grandfather is the late Hawa Singh (1937-2000), who first put India on the boxing map and remains the only Indian boxer to win two straight gold medals at the Asian Games (in 1966 and 1970). He founded the Bhiwani Boxing Club, or BBC, which so revolutionised the sport in India that it was nicknamed Little Cuba. A long line of India’s finest pugilists have started out here, from Akhil Kumar and Olympic medallist Vijender Singh to Lamboria and her fellow medallist this year, Nupur Sheoran, 26 (who, incidentally, is Hawa Singh’s granddaughter).

All the male boxers from India at the 2008 Olympics were from BBC. Three of the four medallists at the 2025 Worlds were too; and all four were from Haryana.

If there is reason to temper the excitement generated by these medals, it is this: India’s women boxers seem always to be on the verge of global dominance, but, with the exception of Mary Kom, have been unable to take that final leap.

Nikhat Zareen, 29, has long been India’s preeminent boxer, yet she has lost to the same opponent four times in a row and, at the Worlds, exited in the quarter-finals. Lovlina Borgohain, 27, who also exited in the quarter-finals, has complained about a lack of quality training partners.

I believe the issue is a lack of intelligent coaching. We do not have world-class tacticians who can lift our women boxers from very good to great. When will the boxing federation, mired as usual in its internal politics, wake up to this goldmine of talent and do it justice?

(To reach Rudraneil Sengupta with feedback, email rudraneil@gmail.com. The views expressed are personal)