From spending most of 2022 out of boxing ring to World Championship medal, the story of Nishant Dev

Nishant spent most of last year away from the sport after undergoing a surgery. He’d dislocated his right shoulder in 2010 after falling from the stairs. That injury returned to haunt him in 2022 as the rod that was put in his shoulder got infected.

By: Sports Desk

May 12, 2023 08:18 PM IST

3 min read

This time around after ensuring a bronze for himself, Dev felt that he could have gone further. (PHOTO: IBA)

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Nishant Dev won a bronze medal at the ongoing IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships after losing to Aslanbek Shymbergenov of Kazakhstan in the semis of the 71kg weight class on Friday.

The boxer from Karnal, Haryana thus became one of the only 10 Indian male boxers to have medalled at the World Boxing Championships. Besides Nishant, Mohammad Hussamuddin and Deepak Bhoria are also going to return from the current Worlds in Tashkent with a medal.

It’s a remarkable comeback for the youngster, who spent most of last year away from the boxing ring. Nishant had dislocated his right shoulder in 2010 after falling from the stairs. That injury returned to haunt him at the start of 2022 as the rod that was put in his shoulder got infected. He underwent surgery in March 2022 and was in rehab for most of the year. Riddled with doubts and insecurities regarding his comeback during the rehabilitation period, he came back strongly to win the title at the National Boxing Championships in Hisar in January 2023. That laid the platform for his run at the World Championships.

4 am starts

The 22-year-old started boxing in 2012, after getting inspired by his uncle who was a professional boxer. In his early days, he used to train under coach Surender Chauhan. His father Pawan Kumar played a massive role when he was starting out, waking the young Nishant up at 4 am everyday and accompanying him to the training centre before going along with his son again in the evening to make sure that he gets to train properly.

It was not long before Nishant found himself representing Karnataka. At the Senior National Championships in Baddi in 2019, Nishant made his debut but lost in the quarters.
However, he did enough to impress the then high-performance director of Indian boxing Santiago Nieva. Soon he earned himself a call up to the Indian national camp.

In 2021, he justified Nieva’s faith, by winning gold at the National Championships. He also competed at the World Championships later that year. Despite it being the first international tournament of his career at any level, the Floyd Mayweather fan defeated nine-time Hungarian national champion Laszlo Kozak in the first round before outclassing two-time Olympian Merven Clair of Mauritius in the second. He went on to win against Mexico’s Marco Alvarez Verde before bowing out in the quarter-finals.

Just when it seemed like his career was taking off, the rod that was put in his shoulder in 2010 got infected. He consequently spent most of 2022 in rehab.

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