At the start of 2017, 22-year-old Amit Panghal was a little known boxer from Haryana, home to many a star pugilist over the years.
It has been a heady rise since for the soft-spoken Amit, punctuated by his trophy cabinet gleaming with acclaimed international medals. The most important of all, undoubtedly, was the extraordinary upset that he fashioned against Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the Asian Games final to win gold.
Amit received a hero’s welcome in Gurgaon, his adopted home: kids thronged to the Nehru stadium in droves, there were garlands made of currency notes to commemorate the young man’s win. Another gift he received was several kilos of desi ghee, something a top-level athlete may not include in his diet chart. “My life has changed,” Amit told Scroll.in.
“My family is thrilled and I’m getting a lot of love wherever I go. I just want to build on this and take it to the Olympics,” he added, already setting sights on his next major target.
It wouldn’t take an expert to notice the surge in belief in Amit following his Asian Games gold, something that seemed unlikely taking into account his opponent’s billing. After all, Dusmatov reigned supreme by a unanimous verdict in the light flyweight quarter-finals of the World Championships at Hamburg in 2017. “I was keeping myself positive. I was confident of my training and the instructions that my coaches had given me.”
Santiago Nieva, India’s high performance men’s coach was a man with plan. “We knew that he has some knowledge of Dusmatov, who tries to take command,” Nieva said. “The plan was to counter that and tire him out.”
Blessed with good footwork, gliding through the ring and counter-punching opponents was a strategy Amit was all too familiar with. His coach from Services and one of the assistants in the Indian camp, CA Kutapa, also noticed that: “He was very good at punching and withdrawing, using his feet to good effect. It is his biggest strength, I feel.”
Close shave
The semi-final bout with Philippines’s Carlo Paalam went to the dying seconds of the bout and It seemed as though Amit was going to settle for a bronze medal. Amit prevailed through a split-decision verdict. Nieva recounted those nail-biting moments that culminated in the umpire raising the Indian’s hand.
“He outclassed his first two opponents but the semi-final showed how tough the level of competition is [in the Asian Games],” the Swede said. “His opponent was tricky and almost lost – the bout was that close. He got the gold but I have to say that it could have ended up as a bronze medal too. He didn’t warm up properly and that is why it took a minute to get into the right kind of rhythm.”
Amit, however, sees himself as a boxer who takes the fight to his opponent. “Pehle round se hi attack karni hai. The idea was to defend a little but at the same time keep the pressure.”
As for Dusmatov, a studied approach coupled with lessons learnt from that loss in the World Championships paved the way for Amit. He said. “I was watching his videos repeatedly and observed his strategy. I studied with my coaches on what needs to be corrected and progressed accordingly.”
Rise to the top and uncertain future
For his win, Amit also credited the roles that the two senior boxers – Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar – played in Jakarta. Vikas had to withdraw from his semi-final bout after suffering a nasty eye injury, but became the first Indian boxer to earn medals in three successive Asian Games. Manoj, despite, lofty expectations suffered an early exit.
Before Amit’s stunning win over Dusmatov, the Indian boxing contingent was heading for a disappointing finish. “Manoj and Vikas would constantly give me advice on where I can work on.”
The bond with the senior boxers started during the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast earlier in the year. That was Amit’s first tryst with the big stage, and finished with a creditable silver. “It [CWG] is a big competition and I felt good about winning the medal. There were plenty of top boxers in the fray and that gave me the confidence that I belonged at the big stage.”
The obedient youngster soaking in the wisdom from his older pros was a far cry from how Amit was when he broke through.
“When I saw him two years ago, he was a very naughty kid,” Kutapa said about the Mayna-born. “Many of the other boxers didn’t like him. In the ring, though, there was no doubting his ability.”
Ahead of Tokyo Olympics 2020, Amit has now emerged one of the frontrunners, “In the 49kg category, he will be among the top three candidates for an Olympic gold medal.”
Therein lies the catch. The event might not have a 49 kg category and he might have to move to 51kg. Amit isn’t fazed by the challenge and doesn’t have any tournaments lined up till the beginning of 2019.
For now, though, he can slurp on some of that desi ghee following an Arjuna Award nomination.