Ranking rise gives major boost to …

After a dominating top-6 performance in back-to-back World Championships and a historic nine Olympic quota haul, Indian boxing’s rise is further validated by the recent world rankings released by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) where 12 Indian pugilists are in the top 10 (8 women, 4 men) with Amit Panghal (52kg) at the pinnacle.

Consistency has been the key to this success of the Indian contingent which has been proven time and again in various international and elite level tournaments where Indians have dominated. A rejuvenated and streamlined system with focussed international exposures and experience of fighting top boxers with high-level and competitive domestic tournaments have given Indian boxing the desired fillip under the leadership of Ajay Singh with the inception of Boxing Federation of India (BFI) in 2016.

“As the BFI President, I have always wanted to see Indian boxers at the pinnacle and it gives me immense satisfaction to see the roadmap unfolding. While these glories of winning medals and topping the rankings are no doubt special, we still remain unwavered in our mission of winning Olympic medals for India,” said BFI President Ajay Singh.

“>The amazing efforts are reflected further in India’s jump in world ranking from No. 24 in 2009-16 to No. 7 in 2017-19 and the fact that the Indian boxing team has had at least 7 best-ever performances in the past two years in major tournaments.

The soaring graph encourages the BFI to set a target of a top-6 finish by next year and eye a top-5 position as well as an Olympic gold in 2024.