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The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Monday constituted a five-member ad hoc committee to oversee the affairs of boxing in the country on the ground that the sport's national federation failed to hold elections on time. The Boxing Federation of India (BFI), within hours, termed the IOA's decision as "illegal" and said it will file a petition to the Delhi High Court to quash the order. The IOA said that the BFI did not hold its elections due on February 2 and asked the ad hoc panel, to be headed by former Athletics Federation of India (AFI) treasurer Madhukant Pathak, to hold the polls at the earliest. "IOA has been closely monitoring the administrative affairs of the Boxing Federation of India. As per the governing norms, elections to BFI were to be conducted on or before 02 February 2025. Despite the prescribed timeline, the elections have not been held, resulting in administrative instability within the federation," IOA President PT Usha wrote in an office order. "In view of t
The Indian Olympic Association's athletes commission chairperson and boxing legend M C Mary Kom on Tuesday denied reports that she has resigned from her position, insisting that she has been misunderstood and will complete her tenure in the panel. The 42-year-old Manipuri, who is also a 2012 Olympics bronze-winner, had travelled to Haldwani for the National Games closing ceremony last week where she expressed her displeasure over being lodged at an "inferior hotel". Speaking to PTI, Mary Kom said her outburst has been misconstrued as resignation. "I have not resigned, I will complete my tenure (which ends in 2026)," she asserted. "I was merely telling my fellow (athletes commission) members that if this kind of treatment happens again, I will consider resigning. I never said that I am resigning. IOA is my family and if I am unhappy over something, I have every right to express it. "This does not mean that I am resigning," she went on. Mary Kom was elected to the panel in 2022 wit
Algeria boxer Imane Khelif, who found herself in the middle of a bitter divide about gender in sports during the Paris Olympics, has denounced false and offensive accusations from the International Boxing Association. I have been knocked down more times than I can count. But I have never stayed down, Khelif said late Tuesday on her Instagram account. The IBA said this week it will file criminal complaints against the International Olympic Committee in the U.S., France and Switzerland. The Swiss-based IOC allowing female boxers Khelif and Lin Yu-ting to compete and win gold medals in Paris last year may serve as grounds for criminal prosecution, the IBA claimed. Khelif responded by saying she will take all necessary legal steps to ensure that my rights and the principles of fair competition are upheld." "Those responsible of these actions must be held accountable, and we will pursue all available legal avenues to ensure that justice prevails," she added. The Russian-led IBA has bee
World championship bronze medallist Indian boxer Nishant Dev has turned professional, bidding adieu to his amateur career. One of the most consistent Indian boxers in recent times, Dev, who represented India at the Paris Olympics, has signed with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing. The 24-year-old will make his professional debut at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on January 25. His opponent is yet to be announced. The event is headlined by a super middleweight bout between Steve Nelson and Diego Pacheco. "I'm very excited to be joining Matchroom Boxing and beginning my professional career in Las Vegas on January 25th," Dev wrote on Instagram on Friday. "My goal is to become India's first ever world professional boxing champion and I know I have a whole nation behind me to help me achieve this." The two-time National champion is being trained by former professional boxer Ronald Simms. "I'm working hard every day with my trainer Ronald Simms. I know I have the right team behind me an
Indian boxing endured a turbulent year marred by coaching turmoil, crushing defeats, and a medal-less Paris Olympics campaign, all of it made worse by the national federation's negligence that brought unprecedented embarrassment to the country. There were very few positives to count in a year when, after a widely successful 2023, expectations were sky high. Yet no boxer was able to add to the three bronze medals -- Vijender Singh (2008), M C Mary Kom (2012) and Lovlina Borgohain (2021) -- that India had secured in the previous editions of the Olympics. Nishant Dev, unlucky to miss out on an Olympic medal, was India's top performer but the likes of world champions Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina disappointed despite widely held belief that fortunes of women's boxing were following an upward trajectory. Outside the ring, the Boxing Federation of India's (BFI) negligence cost India an Olympic quota even as administrators globally scrambled to retain the sport on the Olympic roster. Controv
The boos from a crowd wanting more action were growing again when Jake Paul dropped his gloves before the final bell, and bowed toward 58-year-old Mike Tyson. Paying homage to one of the biggest names in boxing history didn't do much for the fans that filled the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys on Friday night. Paul won a unanimous decision over Tyson as the hits didn't match the hype in a fight between the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer and the former heavyweight champion in his first sanctioned pro fight in almost 20 years. All the hate from the pre-fight buildup was gone, replaced by boos from bewildered fans hoping for more action in a fight that drew plenty of questions about its legitimacy long before it happened. The fight wasn't close on the judge's cards, with one giving Paul an 80-72 edge and the other two calling it 79-73. Tyson came after Paul immediately after the opening bell and landed a couple of quick punches but didn't try much else the rest of the way. Even
It wasn't her day, acknowledged Indian boxer Nikhat Zareen dwelling on her shocking medal-less Olympic campaign but asserted that she would be back stronger with the help of a personal coach that she is currently trying to find. Nikhat, who was a strong medal contender, bowed out of the 50kg women's boxing competition following an unanimous decision loss to top seed and reigning Asian Games champion Wu Yu of China in the preliminary stage. She was the first of six Indian boxers to qualify for the Olympics, where she made a maiden appearance. "Nobody is perfect, It was not my day. I was unseeded and had to face a very good boxer in the early rounds. What really hurts was that boxers who I had already defeated (in past competitions) they won medals, that was heartbreaking," she told PTI Videos. "But we have to accept the reality and keep going. I don't want to plan anything, and want to go with the flow. I didn't have a personal coach," she added. Nikhat, a two-time world champion,
No stranger to the physical toll of weight management during a competition, six-time world champion boxer M C Mary Kom Thursday waded into the debate surrounding wrestler Vinesh Phogat's Olympic heartbreak for being 100gm over, saying that to be within the prescribed limit is an individual responsibility. The 42-year-old mother of four, who is India's only woman boxer with an Olympic medal (a bronze in London, 2012), was in the city to promote Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, which named her as its brand ambassador. Speaking for the first time on Phogat, who was disqualified on the day of her 50kg finals in the Paris Games for being marginally over the prescribed limit, Mary Kom said weight management is an athlete's responsibility. "I felt so disappointed in the sense that I have also done the same (weight management) for the last so many years. Weight is important, that is my responsibility. I cannot blame anyone," she said. "I do not want to say this in her case. I am saying this in
Boxing's already uncertain Olympic future was thrown into further jeopardy after the sport's Asian governing body voted against leaving the suspended International Boxing Association (IBA) to join the rival association. The polling was held via a secret ballot with 21 countries voting in favour of continuing with IBA, while 14 cast their ballot in favour of joining World Boxing, the new body constituted to run the affairs of the sport. There was one invalid vote. Besides India, which participated as an observer, the other countries whose names figured on the roll call included, Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Chinese Taipei, Timor Leste, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen. The IBA has been at loggerheads with the IOC, .
French prosecutors opened an investigation into an online harassment complaint made by Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif after a torrent of criticism and false claims about her sex during the Summer Games, the Paris prosecutor's office said Wednesday. The athlete's lawyer Nabil Boudi filed a legal complaint Friday with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor's office that combats online hate speech. Boudi said the boxer was targeted by a misogynist, racist and sexist campaign as she won gold in the women's welterweight division, becoming a hero in her native Algeria and bringing global attention to women's boxing. The prosecutor's office said it had received the complaint and its Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crime had opened an investigation on charges of cyber harassment based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults on the basis of origin. Khelif was thrust into a worldwide clash over gend
The Indian boxing contingent, that featured two reigning world champions in Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain, entered the Olympics hoping for an unprecedented medal haul, only to crumble under pressure, leaving behind a trail of disappointment in a medal-less campaign. Boxing became a medal hope for India after Vijender Singh's historic bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. MC Mary Kom added a women's bronze to it in 2012. Although the 2016 Rio Games saw the boxers return without a medal, Borgohain clinched a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics to revitalise the sport. Expectations were high from Paris and observers of the game felt at least one, if not two medals, could be expected from the six boxers who qualified. Two-time world champion Zareen (50kg), Borgohan (75kg), and 2023 world championship bronze-medallist Nishant Dev (71kg) were all seen as strong podium contenders. Poor show ======= But when it came to actual competition, the Indians never seemed to have the momentum needed
Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan has advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women's featherweight division, winning her third consecutive bout while dealing with widespread scrutiny regarding misconceptions about her gender at the Paris Olympics. One day after welterweight Imane Khelif of Algeria reached her weight division's final with a third straight victory in Paris, Lin defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey 5:0 on Wednesday night. Lin will fight for gold on Saturday. Lin and Khelif have dominated all of their Olympic bouts despite the massive distractions created by the fallout from the Olympic-banished International Boxing Association's decision last year to disqualify both fighters from the world championships for allegedly failing an eligibility test. Both fighters have responded to this unwelcome spotlight by making two of the best tournament runs of their lengthy amateur careers. Just like Khelif, Lin has never been a dominant champion in her sport, but that hasn't stopped ma
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will press her fight for an Olympic gold medal Tuesday night amid the intense scrutiny over misconceptions about her gender. Khelif takes on Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in boxing semifinals at the Paris Olympics at Roland Garros, Paris' famed tennis complex. The winner advances to the women's 66-kilogram finals on Friday night. Khelif, a two-time Olympian, has already clinched her first Olympic medal, which is also Algeria's first medal in women's boxing. She needs two more victories to claim only Algeria's second boxing gold medal, following Hocine Soltani in 1996. Khelif comfortably won her first two fights in Paris, but the ending of her first bout propelled her into a worldwide divide over gender identity and regulations in sports. Her first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, tearfully quit after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khelif's punches. Carini's abandonment of the fight led to comments from the likes of former U.S.
Cameroonian boxer Cindy Ngamba on Sunday became the first athlete on the Refugee Olympic Team to clinch a medal at the Paris Games, offering hope for a team created to call attention to the plight of refugees across the world. Ngamba's victory comes after a fierce bout with French boxer Davina Michel in the women's middleweight quarterfinals. The win means she's at least scored a bronze medal as she advances to the semifinals. Ngamba was a flag bearer for the 37 athletes making up the biggest Olympic Refugee Team since the idea was born ahead of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Ngamba, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 11 and said she was granted refugee status in 2021 because she could have been imprisoned for being gay in Cameroon. She has said boxing has been her escape from the chaos and has lifted her to the international stage. While some of the athletes on the team have already won Olympic medals for their countries in pas
In a bout that attracted global attention, Hungary's Luca Anna Hamari (66kg) braved intimidating gender row boxer Iman Khelif for three competitive rounds at the Paris Olympics and walked out feeling proud of herself as "not fighting was not an option" for her, here Saturday. The Algerian, embroiled in a major gender controversy in the French capital, left the ring in tears after she guaranteed herself at least bronze by entering the women's 66kg semifinals. Her previous opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini had pulled out of her bout against Khelif on Thursday just after 46 seconds, unable to take heavy punches from the Algerian, who was banned from the 2023 World Championship in New Delhi for failing the gender eligibility test. The dramatic turn of events had created a huge furore in the boxing world and at the Games, with many questioning Khelif's presence in the women's competition even as IOC put up a stout defence of their decision to allow the Algerian to compete as a ...
Boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria clinched a medal at the Paris Olympics in an emotional fight Saturday that followed days of sharp scrutiny and online abuse as misconceptions about her gender have exploded into a larger clash about identity in sports. Khelif defeated Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary 5:0 in the quarterfinals of the women's 66-kilogram bout. Khelif will win at least a bronze medal after defeating Hamori for the second victory of her tumultuous second trip to the Olympics. Hungary's boxing association said it planned to contest the matchup with the International Olympic Committee but still let the fight go ahead. Khelif faced outcry after the banned International Boxing Association claimed she failed an unspecified eligibility test to compete last year over elevated levels of testosterone. She won her opening bout at the Paris Games on Thursday when opponent Angela Carini of Italy tearfully abandoned the fight after just 46 seconds. The unusual ending became a sharp wedge to .