Pro champ hails fellow Haryanvi, who won gold and Best Boxer award in Bulgaria yesterday
Vikas Krishan
Vikas Krishan's double delight for Indian boxing - gold in the middleweight category and Best Boxer award at the Strandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria yesterday - has pleasantly surprised the fraternity back home. And there's one man, who believes that these achievements have the potential to snowball into something big for Indian boxing in the current year.
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Vijender Singh
Professional boxing champ Vijender Singh, 32, yesterday hailed Krishan's feat and is confident the boxer can go on to make it a fine year for himself and the country. "Vikas is peaking at the perfect time. The Commonwealth Games and Asian Games are coming up this year and he is certainly a gold medal prospect in both," Vijender, who was in the city yesterday, told mid-day.
Vijender should know because, not too long ago, both he and his fellow Haryana boxer, Krishan, 26, were often in the race for that solitary middleweight spot whenever it came to representing India. "Vikas is a fine boxer. I have watched him train at the India camp and he's a very hardworking boy. He's a southpaw and that gives him an advantage because most middleweight fighters are right-handed. In Bulgaria, he beat a world championships medalist for the gold medal, no mean feat," added the 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze-winner, who has won 10 out of 10 fights in his professional career so far.
Krishan comfortably beat world championships bronze medallist Troy Isley of the USA in the final in Sofia. And the manner in which he beat the right-handed boxer left no doubt in Vijender's mind that Krishan can step into his shoes and win an Olympic medal in two years' time. "I believe Vikas can win a medal at Tokyo 2020. The Games are two years away, but if he can stay injury-free, he can achieve it," he signed off.
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