DEEPAK KUMAR

 D.O.B – June 9, 1997
Hometown – Hisar, Haryana
Stance – Orthodox

In 2008, Deepak was just an 11-year-old when he started boxing at the insistence of his uncle. His father was a constable by profession and his mother, a homemaker who also worked in the farms. Life was never an easy one. In 2009, due to dire financial constraints young Deepak was forced to leave boxing as he couldn’t afford the expenses of diet and training which were a must to ensure he had a good physique and mental training.

While his dreams of becoming a boxer were almost over; his coach, Rajesh Sheoran’s help brought him back to the ring once again. He helped him by paying his diet and training expenses. In 2011, when everything seemed to move smoothly, Deepak was struck by a mighty blow as he fractured his right hand, something which became career-threatening. The fracture continued to trouble him for almost two years before he underwent surgery.

While everything looked uncertain about his professional career and he had started doubting himself, that injury gave Prasad new perspectives. While he was unable to move his right hand, he slowly strengthened his left hand which he says helps him a lot now as he is equally deft to fighting with both hands.

Despite the downhill that boxing faced with a dearth of competitive tournaments, Deepak never gave up. He continued with training but in 2015, life threw in a fresh set of challenges for the pugilist. The financial crisis was something which continued to haunt him, so much so that the boxer had to work as a newspaper vendor to sustain himself. In 2016 finally, there was some silver lining to the dark clouds.

He joined Madras Engineering Group, Bangalore and later that year, he also was selected by the Army Sports Institute, Pune. Since then, he has never looked back. His financial crisis was taken care of and his career saw an upswing.

Deepak won a gold medal at 2018 Senior National Championship and in 2019 he won a gold medal at the Makran Cup on international debut.

Deepak carried that confidence into the Asian Boxing Championships and stormed into the final, where he had to settle for the silver in a tight match that went in favour of Nodirjon Mirzakhmedov of Uzbekistan 3-2.

Achievements: