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In Nikhat’s Ring Of Fire, Spirit Soars While Adversity Melts

- Sabi Hussain

New Delhi: When Nikhat Zareen first took to the ring as a 12-year-old in her hometown of Nizamabad back in 2008, the sparring session with a boy had left the boxer with a blackened eye and a bloody nose. Her mother, Praveen Sultana, was furious. She was worried because it might hamper her child’s marriage prospects. She told Nikhat to drop the idea of becoming a boxer. For Nikhat, there were more pressing matters at hand. How to seek revenge from that boy and pay him back with interest. So, a young and pugnacious Nikhat called him up to spar with her when she returned to the Nizamabad stadium complex post her recovery from injury and left him with a bloodier nose than hers, forcing the coaches to stop the session.

Nikhat has not looked back since despite numerous challenges. Be it indifference from the boxing federation (BFI) or injury. The Asian Championships bronze medallist had suffered a career-threatening dislocation of her right shoulder during the All-India Inter University meet in October 2017. It seemed like a knockout punch to her dreams of shining globally in women’s flyweight boxing. She was told by her coaches and physiotherapists that it would take a surgery on her dominant hand for her to box again. In a moment, the world had turned upside down and it seemed her bright boxing career would end prematurely.