For boxing champ Nikhat Zareen, it’s a bout time

Zareen is the first Indian to win gold at the Women’s World Boxing Championships since MC Mary Kom in 2018, and only the fifth Indian ever. To messages from politicians (including prime minister Narendra Modi), sportspeople (Olympic gold-medallist Neeraj Chopra) and celebrities (including actor Salman Khan), she responds with the jubilation she clearly feels.

“When my hands were raised, I was very emotional and happy. I was emotional because this came after so much hard work and sacrifice in my long career,” says Zareen, 25.

The hard work began when she was 12. Her father Mohammed Jameel, a former sales assistant in Saudi Arabia and before that a footballer who represented his school at the national level, was eager that one of his four daughters pick a sport. Zareen picked running. Then, a few months in, boxing caught her eye.

There were only boys at the Secretariat Stadium in the city of Nizamabad, Telangana, where she and her family live. “Are there no girls in boxing,” she asked her father. You need lot of courage to become a boxer, and people think girls are not made for it, he responded. Zareen says that decided it for her. This was the sport she would pick.

“It was difficult initially,” she says. “I was the only girl. But getting a lot of punches from boys made me strong enough to fight back, not only in the ring but outside the ring also. I take a stand for myself. I feel that everyone should be strong enough to stand up for themselves. That is the quality of a great person.”

In the neighbourhood, Zareen faced comments about her clothes (she wore shorts to practice). There were “concerns” raised by neighbours. “Like, if I am hit and injured, who will marry me… My father never let those comments get to me. He always told me, ‘Focus on your boxing and keep winning medals for the country’,” she says.

Her mother, homemaker Parveen Sultana, was reluctant at first, mainly because of the bruises her daughter came home with, but she came around too.

Now, Zareen says she hopes that her win and India’s celebration of it will inspire girls to follow their dream, and parents across the country to let them. “I wish every parent would back their child’s dreams as my parents backed mine.”

Already, there has been a change in her neighbourhood. “The same people who used to tell my parents, ‘Why are you sending a girl to train in boxing’, now want to take selfies with me. They support me. I am happy that I have been able to change their mentality.”

People from across the country have been reaching out, she adds. “They say ‘We want our daughter to learn boxing. Which academy would you suggest?’ It makes me feel proud. My dream, after winning an Olympic medal, is to start an academy and help girls achieve this dream.”

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Zareen is one of India’s finest boxers. She burst onto the scene in 2011, winning the world junior championship. She is the only Indian to have won gold twice at the Strandja Memorial tournament (2019 and 2022). She won bronze at the Asian championships in 2019. But a medal at a major event eluded her.

She had her hopes pinned to the Tokyo Olympics, but being in the same category (flyweight) as the boxing legend Mary Kom made that goal an even more complex one. When Mary Kom was sent on to the 2019 world championships without a selection trial, an upset Zareen wrote to the Boxing Federation of India and union sports ministry asking for a fair trial before the Olympics qualifiers. Mary Kom eventually beat her in a charged-up bout.

“It was a big thing for me to enter the ring and have a match with Mary Kom because I have always looked up to her. She has been my inspiration. I lost in the trial but I took it as a lesson and I worked hard on my weaknesses,” Zareen says.

By the time of the Strandja Memorial in February this year, she felt ready. She defeated Olympic silver-medallist Buse Naz Cakiroglu from Turkey. At the WBC, as she made it through round after round, “I was nervous and excited because I was getting closer to the gold medal,” she says.

“When I found out that in the final I was facing Jutamas Jitpong of Thailand, whom I defeated in 2019, it gave me confidence. But there were doubts creeping in too. She had participated in the Tokyo Olympics and reached the quarterfinals. Past performances don’t matter.”

It was a mixture of emotions on the final day. “I told myself ‘Nikhat, you have to win. It was your dream to win a major gold for your country.’” Already, hours after the win, she’s looking ahead, to the Commonwealth Games in July-August and then the 2024 Paris Olympics.

That’s the Zareen in the ring. Calm. Composed. Determined. Outside the ring, she says, she’s naughty, talkative and fun loving. “I like clicking pictures, getting clicked, making Reels and eating a lot of food.” People who know that Nikhat can’t recognise me in the ring, she adds, laughing.

Now, it’s time to head back to those people, her friends and family. “I want to celebrate with them. I want to go home,” she says.