Golden Punch To Kom

Newly crowned world champion Nikhat Zareen is keen to use the experience gained in the recently concluded global event to qualify for the 2024 Olympics at the Asian Games scheduled later this year. The Asian Games are the first qualifying event for the Paris Olympics for the boxers of the continent. Nikhat, who won the 52kg world title last year, dropped down to the 50kg weight class as it is an Olympic category.

Contrary to her earlier plans of buying a Mercedes, newly-crowned two-time World Champion Nikhat Zareen now wants to send her parents to perform 'Umrah' with the prize money.

Nikhat won her second world championship title with a 5-0 win over Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam here on Sunday. With the title she also received USD 100,000 winner's cheque and 'Thar' car gifted by sponsors Mahindra. She had earlier said she would buy a Mercedes car with the prize money.

Nikhat is now only the second Indian boxer to have two World titles, the first being the trailblazing MC Mary Kom, who has won six golds.

Moving down to 50kg has been a tough task for Nikhat, who has to shed 3 to 4kg from her natural weight to make the cut. "This World Championships were tougher because last time I did not have to put in a lot of effort for weight management. "But this time I had to follow a diet and I had to be disciplined and after the Nationals we did not get much time to prepare for the competition," she said.

MC Mary Kom had once angrily asked, "Who Nikhat Zareen?" Having responded to the query once in 2022, the trailblazer Nikhat answered one more time on Sunday by winning a second world championship title, that too in front of a roaring home crowd, to become only the second Indian to do so. With that, she has emerged as the heir apparent to the iconic six-time world champion boxer May Kom.

As far as Mary is concerned, little did she know that in four years time Nikhat would end up following in her footsteps and become only the second Indian pugilist after the Manipuri to claim more than one world championship title.

Nikhat's father wanted her to become a sprinter but his daughter took up boxing -- to prove women can excel in the sport too. With boxing came vests and training shorts and coming from a Muslim household in Telangana's Nizamabad, Nikhat and her parents were subjected to taunts and comments. But she didn't pay attention to the "outside noise". After the high of the junior world championship title a decade back, tragedy struck as Nikhat snapped her shoulder during a bout, forcing her to stay away from the ring for nearly a year. But the plucky boxer was determined to establish herself at the elite level and made a resounding comeback.

The pugilist made her mark by winning gold at the prestigious Strandja Memorial and silver at the Thailand Open in 2019 but she couldn't get the better of Mary, arguably the greatest woman boxer in history, in the India Open. Ahead of the 2019 World Championship, she was refused a trial by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), which decided to go by Mary's consistent performances and the Manipuri claimed her eighth world championship medal.

When the BFI decided to send Mary for the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers on the back of her bronze-winning show at the World Championships, Nikhat famously wrote to then Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju demanding a "fair trial".

Nikhat's request was heeded and a trial was announced, but the young pugilist ended up losing to the veteran in a one-sided bout fought under acrimonious circumstances. But that episode could not deter Nikhat from gunning for accolades, as the gutsy boxer grabbed her opportunities with both hands, punching her way past disappointments and hurdles to glory.

Nikhat's slew of wins as a teenager had led people to hail her as a possible heir to Mary's throne and her recent victories have strengthened the view. She has been in indomitable form and enjoying a purple patch since October 2021. She hasn't lost a single bout, winning two National Championships titles, the 2022 Strandja Memorial, 2022 World Championships, all the selection trials and the Commonwealth Games.