Vijender Singh refused to be drawn into a battle of words and reiterated his gloves will all do the talking ringside tonight when he goes fist to fist with Australian southpaw Kerry Hope for the vacant WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title.
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“I can’t wait for tomorrow (Saturday)”. “I’ve been training hard in Australia, but he doesn’t look like he’s been training”. The Indian came in at 75.7kg in the official weigh in.
Unveiling the title belt at a press conference here in New Delhi today, Ajay Khanna, Vice President & General Manager – Herbalife International India said, “The Asia Pacific Boxing Championship is the first ever International pro-boxing show in India, and comes at a time when India is emerging as a big market for pro-boxing”.
“I don’t want to say anything before the fight, pass any comment or any bad thing about him, like I am going to destroy him”, said the bronze medal victor in the 2009 World Championship in middleweight (75kg).
An august gathering of sporting legends, politicians and Bollywood celebrities will be in full attendance at the Thyagaraj stadium which is expected to draw a sizeable number of fans as well.
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Kapil Dev, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir will be in attendance from the cricketing world. Besides Mary Kom and double Olympic medalist wrestler Sushil Kumar will also witness the fight. As the fight is coming closer, the intensity of Vijender’s training is increasing day by day, and his trainer is very impressed with the hard work Vijender is putting in, “He is training very hard, he has been sparring 12 rounds with 3 different guys and also putting the strength and condition to work hard”, says world renowned champion trainer Lee Beard. The 35-year-old boxer will know that a win here will lead to a world ranking with World Boxing Organization (WBO) in the 168lbs division and he can look forward to some potentially intriguing fights later this year. A confident Vijender, as Mumbai Mirror reports, says, “I think, there is no pressure”. Hope added: “This bout will open the doors to bigger things in life”. The crowd will be a factor for both the boxers. Responding with a grin to the statement, Vijender will be drawing inspiration from the home crowd.
