Vijender Kumar

Trivia

• Vijender boxed recreationally in his childhood and used to go to the Bhiwani Sports Authority of India center for boxing practice, where coach Jagdish Singh picked his talent.
• Vijender a won silver medal in his first sub-junior nationals and then finished the 2nd sub-junior in the same position.
• Vijender won medals in junior national competitions after that and he was picked to visit several countries like Cuba for further training and competitions.
• At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he defeated England's Neil Perkins in the semis but lost to South Africa's Bongani Mwelase, who went on to win the gold.
• He went up a division and competed in the Middleweight (-75 kg) division at the 2006 Asian Games winning the bronze medal in a lost semifinal bout against Kazakhstan's Bakhtiyar Artayev 24-29.
• In 2009, he achieved the second ranking in the World in 75kg with a tally of 1700 points, as announced by International Boxing Association(AIBA).
• The third round was evenly contested with both fighters scoring on a couple of occasions, but the damage had already been done.
• Vijender won the first round of the bout 1-0, only for Atoev to run rampant in the second, landing five unanswered blows.
• Vijender Singh was beaten by Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan in the semi-final of the 75kg Middleweight category of the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships by 7 points to 3 and was thus awarded the bronze medal.
• At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Vijender contested in the welterweight division, but lost to Mustafa Karagollu of Turkey by 20-25.

Quotes

• "I am really happy to win India's first medal in boxing and all credit goes to my coaches, and my parents, especially my father, who went to a far-away temple to pray for my success. My teammates Akhil and Jitender had lost their fights, so I wanted to do well and win the medal."
• "He is a Cuban boxer but at the moment I won't comment as we will be seeing his videos. All I can say is that my strategy will be to win, win and win."
• "I'm very upset and want to say sorry to all for I could not win the bout. But I promise to come back in 2012 Olympics and beat this guy and win gold."
• "I had prepared well for his right punches but his left proved equally strong and I often had no answer to that,"
• "I believe, boxing will see better days in India. We made good progress in the sport and it showed here."
• " I want to play at the Madison Square Garden, I want to be promoted by Don King,"