Zulpikar Maimaitiali wore a bright gold and green costume as he entered the ring. It was a rather fancy outfit in comparison to Vijender's white and tri-colour-inspired costume on Saturday
Chinese's Zulpikar Maimaitiali enters the ring in a fancy outfit designed by his father
Zulpikar Maimaitiali wore a bright gold and green costume as he entered the ring. It was a rather fancy outfit in comparison to Vijender's white and tri-colour-inspired costume on Saturday. Zulpikar's father Maimaitiali had designed the outfit. "My father loves to do art and likes to design clothes and my final entry costume will also be by him," Zulpikar had said in the build up to the fight.
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Empty Dome echoes
There were a lot of empty seats at the 5000-capacity NSCI Dome on Saturday for Battleground Asia. It seems the tickets that were modestly priced at R1500 upwards, with the most expensive hospitality seats being the Gold category (R8000) and above that, the Diamond category (R12000), got few takers. According to the organisers IOS Boxing Promotions, most of the seats were sold out.
However, when mid-day checked at the booking counters, there were still tickets rather easily available across all categories -- and this was at around 8pm -- more than half-way through the eight-fight card, with six fights already completed. In fact, there were some youngsters even selling tickets at prices lower than the official rates. "R1000 for a R1500 ticket only -- three tickets for R2500," said one youngster as he approached this correspondent.
Gheun tak, says Mumbai
It was a close contest between Vijender Singh and Zulpikar Maimaitiali at Battleground Asia and even as the tense fight went down to the wire, the Mumbai crowd was seen having a ball. The southwest corner of the Dome here was the most vocal. "Chinese maal hai, no guarantee," yelled out one Vijender fan. "China ka product hai, lamba nahi chalega," yelled another. The clincher though had to be this guy who yelled out in Marathi. "Gheun tak," he screamed filling the stand with laughter.
Cheers for Baba Ramdev
There was quite a dash of Bollywood at Battleground Asia with superstar Amitabh Bachchan, his son Abhishek and actors Randeep Hooda, Sonu Sood and Neha Dhupia among other stars in attendance at the Dome here. However, the loudest cheer went to yoga guru Baba Ramdev. "Jai Patanjali," screamed a host of spectators even as the yoga maestro waved to the crowd as he took his ringside VVIP seat.
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