Amit Panghal, hurt by treatment in Indian circuit and lack of recent amateur success, turns professional

“We all know what I was going through the last two years. Despite asking for trials in Flyweight, I was denied that opportunity and was suffering due to the coaches in the national camp acting against me. It’s always players who suffer due to such politics and that was the main reason why I decided to turn professional. I had it in my mind since September last year but then I discussed it with my coach Anil Dhankar and only decided now,” Panghal told The Indian Express.

The Haryana boxer, who remains the only Indian male boxer to reach a World Championship final, had first arrived on the international amateur scene when he defeated Rio Olympics Olympic champion Uzbek Hasanboy Dusmatov in the then 52 Kg flyweight final at the Asian Games 2018 final in Jakarta. A year later, Panghal would become the continental champ with wins over three world/Olympic medallists at the 2019 Asian Championship in Bangkok where he defeated Dusmatov, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Hu Jianghan and World Championship bronze medallist Kim Inkyu. The same year Panghal would become the first Indian man to win a silver at the World Championship with a loss against Dusmatov, in the final.

But the next four years would see him facing a disappointing pre-quarters exit with a loss against Rio silver-medallist Yuberjen Martinez at the Tokyo Olympics before he won the 2022 CWG gold. With Deepak Bhoria being chosen by then-foreign coach Bernard Dunne with a no-trial policy, Panghal would miss the Asian Games as well World Championships and the first Paris Olympics qualifiers. “Tokyo was something which took a long time for me to get past in my mind. At that time too, I did not want to train in Italy ahead of the Olympics as I always faced the problem of diet abroad. That one month took a toll on my body. I was making Martinez fight according to me in the first round but in the second round, my body let me down. And post that, I was regularly ignored by coaches,” recalled the 29-year-old.

While the Indian Army subedar got India’s Paris Olympics quota at the Second Paris Olympics qualifier, he again suffered a pre-quarters loss against Patrick Chinyemba at the Games. Panghal, known for his overhead punches which once helped him stun the likes of Dusmatov, was a poor image of himself in Paris. “I had only one month of serious training prior to the Olympics. Coaches would ignore me for training apart from making me spar against women boxers in lightweight categories while I would ask for sparring partners of flyweight or bantamweight like in the past. How can I medal if my preparation was such and I am also to be blamed,” Panghal said.

With World Boxing removing the 51kg weight category from the Olympics and introducing 55kg, Panghal will fight in the 54kg division at the professional level. Panghal’s long-time rival Dusmatov, who had turned pro in 2019, has been competing in the pro circuit apart from amateur events and won his second Olympic gold in Paris in flyweight with his first Olympic title coming in Rio in light-flyweight. “Pro boxing is all about hard punches and aiming for knockout. The training is also the same with more focus on strength. In the amateur circuit, we focus on scoring points and slipping away but that’s not the case in pro. So I cannot just rely on my deceptive punches in the pro circuit. I have been a big fan of 2008 and 2012 Olympic champion Vasiliy Lomachenko and have been watching his videos apart from seeking guidance from Vijender (Singh) bhai, who has told me to focus on strength,” Panghal said.

In comparison to three professional boxers competing at Rio Olympics – where professional boxers were allowed to compete in Olympics for the first time – Tokyo saw a total of 36 male and seven female boxers competing amounting to a total of 15% of the 286 boxers. Six of the 36 male professional boxers won medals in Tokyo including Uzbek boxer Bakhodir Jalolov. In Paris, a total of 23 male and 19 female boxers competed with the likes of Dusmatov and Jalolov winning gold medals along with 11 more medallists.

Former Indian foreign High-Performance Director Santiago Nieva sees Professional experience helping boxers but not as a deciding factor. “All those professional boxers who won medals at the Olympics have been in the amateur circuit for a long time. The amateur circuit is a lot tougher as it sees a boxer competing in tournaments or in a camp for more than ten months of a year. Whereas pro boxers nowadays only have 2-3 fights per year. Yes, one deals with unknown territory like extra rounds or boxers not knowing scoring between or after rounds and the aspect of knockdown and small gloves in the pro circuit. It poses more challenges in terms of emotions, psychologically as well as physically in one bout. So if one can balance like Dusmatov or Jalolov, it works well,” said Nieva.