Twelve Rounds

As a promoter, do you try to make Vijender Singh the best boxer he can be, or do you use his appeal to try to create a professional boxing market in India?

- Shamya Dasgupta

The two agendas can co-exist, of course, but it’s fair to contend that there may be some dissonance here. So much so that one wonders if Vijender, he of 10-0 fame, has missed the bus. How long will he keep fighting no-name boxers for small-time belts?

The facts: Vijender has beaten everyone he has faced so far. The seventh win, against Australian Kerry Hope, got him the vacant WBO Asia-Pacific Super Middleweight belt. He has held on to it, retaining it three times, while adding the WBO Oriental Super Middleweight title to his bag.

Not bad at all, you can only beat the opponents you get. But the men Vijender has beaten so far are unlikely to instil fear in many top-drawer boxers, and that’s also a fact. Let’s run his last three opponents through BoxRec.com—whose rankings are widely acknowledged as more reliable than those of the WBO, WBA, WBC, IBF and so on. Francis Cheka is ranked 236 in the world, Zulpikar Maimaitiali 94, and Ernest Amuzu 213. Beating them shouldn’t have been too tough for Vijender, ranked 43, and it wasn’t.

If you’re wondering what really is going on, wait up. Boxers at the professional level do start with easy opponents, it’s part of the game. The record looks good, the ranking goes up, and then come the tough ones, the bouts that test the boxer; it’s make-or-break territory, no place to hide.