In second innings, Vijender Singh searching for a second wind
At about 5 pm local time on Saturday — prime time on Indian TV — Vijender Singh will stride out to the ring in the centre of the 21,000 seater Manchester Arena. Wearing custom tri colour shorts made by the same company who designed the ring kit for Ricky Hatton and Carl Froch, he’ll bounce along to the beat of Bollywood chartbuster “Singh is King”.
The previous day his twitter feed had been inundated with tweets from Bollywood stars, cricketers and fans wishing him good luck for his debut professional bout against Sonny Whiting. Broadcaster Sony Six expects some 20 million to watch the encounter. Vijender Singh isn’t the first Indian boxer to turn professional, but he certainly seems to have generated the most hype.
This isn’t to say that the fervour for the country’s only Olympic medalist in India is evenly matched in Manchester. Vijender is only the undercard in Saturday’s show — which is headlined by a world title fight between local lad Terry Flanagan and Diego Magdaleno. And the Indian’s bout — the third of the eight scheduled, will take place before the Arena fills to capacity.
But this doesn’t take away from the buzz generated by the 29-year-old. Veteran boxing commentator Steve Lillis only recalls two instances of fighters — Audley Harrison and Anthony Joshua who main evented in their debuts. But both Harrison (who won Olympic superheavyweight gold in 2000) and Joshua (who won the same category at the London Olympics) had the benefit of being homegrown boxers already familiar with the paying public. “For someone like Vijender who isn’t an English boxer, it’s a very big deal to have your first fight in a huge venue like the Manchester Arena,” says Lillis, one of the most prominent voices of the sport in Britain.
Vijender likely has a number of fans in the British Indian community who are willing to pay as much as 500 pounds (the maximum ticket value on Saturday’s show) to watch him fight. But Lillis reckons Queensberry Promotions are looking beyond that market. “Right now Vijender is still ‘the Indian boxer’ everyone’s talking about. But he isn’t a mainstream star. Francis Warren (who runs Queensberry) will be interested in bringing British fans to the show,” he says.
Keeping that in mind, it makes sense to give Vijender as prominent a debut as possible. “You get more exposure than if you are just fighting at a smaller venue. At this stage it is all about building a star,” he says.
The brand building has been carried out methodically. Vijender’s been billed as a Bollywood hero. His stellar amateur record has been highlighted as prominently as the number of likes on his Facebook page. He has given interviews across the media spectrum and done the meet and greet routine. But on Saturday evening when he climbs through the ropes and onto the canvas, Vijender will have to deliver on his promise.
Promoter Francis Warren admitted as much. “This isn’t about Bollywood. This isn’t about publicity. It is about boxing,” he said.
While betting agencies — the most reliable prophesizers — overwhelmingly favour Vijender, he does start out seemingly at a disadvantage purely in terms of professional experience. His opponent Whiting despite losing once, has still fought three times more than the Indian and for whom he promises a rough welcome.
“It’s not always easy making your debut after a long amateur career,” admits Lee Beard, former trainer to World Champion Ricky Hatton, who has been working with Vijender for several weeks now.
“The problem I have seen in amateurs who turn professional is that they tend to get overexcited and start rushing. And that’s when they start making mistakes, wasting punches and begin getting caught with shots,” he says.
Beard however says this isn’t what he expects from Vijender. “He isn’t showing a lot of nerves. I expect that’s because he has campaigned for so long at the highest level. At the press conference he gave the impression of someone who had boxed 10 or 15 professional bouts rather than someone who is making his debut. He was very calm, very patient and in a great place. It was his opponent who looked a bit nervous,” says Beard.
There were several challenges however. Vijender was coming off a nearly two decade long amateur career before he began training with Beard. There are vast differences to be overcome. “Everything is different. Your stance is different. Your footwork is different,” admitted Vijender a few days back.
Issues to be resolved
With a little over a month of training together, Beard admits there are technical issues he has yet to resolve. “We focused on basic stuff. I wanted to make sure he stays behind the jab and throw it a bit more to the body. We worked on his defense especially inside the pocket,” Beard says.
As such Beard doesn’t expect Vijender to be flawless on Saturday. “Undoubtedly he is going to make mistakes in his first few bouts. He will keep learning as he boxes. Right now I don’t want him to try new stuff. I don’t want him to get to the ring and get confused. After his first couple of fights, I have some time in the gym with him and we’ll iron out his mistakes then,” he says.
With four of his fighters featuring on Saturday’s card, Beard isn’t particularly anxious about being in Vijender’s corner. “From what I know, Whiting’s a fighter who likes to come forward and likes to land, but I don’t think I will have to be too involved as long as Vijender keeps it tight and stays behind his jab. I’m confident when the bell rings, he sticks to the gameplan, controls the middle of the ring, gets comfortable and gets the first fight out of the way. He’s a much better boxer than Whiting,” Beard says.
For the moment Beard’s strategy is simple. “Its not about looking for the fancy knock out. It’s simply about not doing anything silly and picking up a win,” he says.
Not that Vijender is looking for the fancy knockout. Lillis spoke to the Indian prior to his bout and said he was at pains to point out that there wasn’t a time limit for him to make an impact. “Vijender said that he was going to take as long as it takes to adapt,” Lillis says.
Indeed, says Lillis, the question isn’t whether Vijender wins or not, but rather how he looks in the ring. “I expect him to win. But it will be interesting to see how he wins. People want to know how quickly he adapts to the professional game,” says Lillis.
