Nikhat Zareen: The Incredible Story Behind India’s Fifth Female Gold Boxing Winner
Sports fans love a good underdog story. Regardless of whether it is the unranked outsider who takes the championship by storm or the battle-hardened veteran who fights their way back from the brink of failure to secure a win, there is something deep and universal in the human psyche that draws us towards these stories.
One of the greatest and most recent boxing underdog stories comes out of India, where a talented young boxer — Nikhat Zareen — went on to win what is only India’s fifth world championship medal.
In doing so, Zareen took many boxing fans by surprise who had not been rating her particularly favorably in the boxing betting odds, according to WSN.com, going into the competition. Despite the doubts of the bookmakers and sportsbook users, Nikhat Zareen proved them all wrong when she eventually secured a coveted gold medal!
This underdog story got started when Zareen was only 12 years old. After her first ever sparring session, the bruised and blackened child resolved to never take such a beating again. Although this was a difficult defeat to accept at the time, it proved to be a pivotal moment in Zareen’s life that would fundamentally alter her trajectory.
Despite coming from a quaint but under-resourced neighborhood in Nizamabad, Telangana in India, Zareen would eventually end up on top of the world when she was crowned world champion on May 20th, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.
In doing so, Zareen joins an elite list of boxers who have similarly etched their names into the annals of Indian sporting history — including Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL and Lekha KC.
From early on, Zareen was always fighting a fight in which the odds were stacked against her. This was especially true in her earliest days of training, when she was required to spar with older and ostensibly stronger boys in the gym.
However, this ultimately forced her to become a better boxer and, in particular, to finesse the skillful strikes that would allow her to out-box her stronger opponents.
From there, Nikhat Zareen went on to claim sub-junior, Junior and Youth World Championship wins. Following this, Zareen transitioned into the more challenging senior circuit.
Just like her boxing hero Mary Kom, however, these challenges only served to strengthen her resolve. Despite some challenges in transitioning to the senior squad, Zareen gradually established herself. This was in spite of the stiff competition present in the 51kg weight class.
The momentum Zareen had been building up looked as if it would come crashing down when she dislocated her right shoulder in 2017, which kept her out of the ring for a year.
Nevertheless, Zareen vowed to return to the international stage and eventually made good on her promise when she secured a silver medal at the Belgrade Winner International Championship in 2018. This was swiftly followed up in 2019 when she won an Asian Championships Bronze in Bangkok, as well as a gold medal at the Strandja Boxing Tournament in Sofia.
However, the biggest hurdle faced by Zareen was the fact that her idol — Mary Kom — was still competing on the national squad in her weight class. As such, Zareen requested the national team conduct a selection trial for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Although Zareen lost this bout — with Kom eventually dropping out of the Tokyo Olympics in round 16 — this did not deter her. Following this sequence of events, Zareen went on to win the national championship in 2021, with further victories at the Bosphorus Open and the Strandja Memorial.
This marked a turning point in Zareen’s career and put her on the path towards world championship victory in Istanbul in 2022. In the run up to the final, she managed to win all her bouts by unanimous decision.
The final round of the World Championship had Zareen facing off against Jutamas Jitpong of Thailand, who was fresh from the Tokyo Olympics. Despite this, Zareen handily outboxed Jitpong in the final and secured India a gold championship medal.
This represented the culmination of a 16-year journey from the first time Nikhat Zareen slipped on a pair of boxing gloves — a journey that had taken her across the world competing at the highest level.
In doing so, Zareen matched the achievements of her Idol, Mary Kom, and cemented herself as one of the greatest Indian boxing legends of all time!
