Soon after her semi-final bout, Mary Kom showed her fans some dance moves while walking out of the ring. The fans let out a huge roar as she continued her celebrations.
The decibel levels even higher when she was inside the ring, fighting North Korea’s Kim Hyang-Mi. She defeated her North Korean opponent to make the 48kg weight category final, her seventh at the Aiba World Championships.
The 35-year-old is yet to be rattled inside the ring. Fighting opponents younger to her, Mary rarely lets them take over the proceedings and Thursday was no different. With her experience, Mary dominated her North Korean opponent, much taller than her, and continued her winning run at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium.
“My opponent was taller and stronger than me so I changed my strategy. Attack took a back seat and defence and counter was the plan. I have a lot of experience,” Mary said after the bout.
Years of wisdom helped Mary understand Hyang-Mi’s style right from the first round. During the first break, she sat in her corner and told the coach Chhote Lal Yadav “counter khel rahi hai”.
Instead of giving her furious instructions, Yadav was happy that she knew the opponent’s style of boxing; he asked his ward to deploy a counter-punching game of her own.
“Today’s bout was the perfect example of her defence. I know the first round was tricky because they have studied Mary as well. She was also trying to counter-punch. So, we asked Mary to wait for her to punch. [Mary’s] speed on counter made the difference,” Yadav says.
The second round saw Mary spring to life. She moved briskly around the ring and did not give her opponent an inch. In came the counter-punch with lighting speed, which took the North Korean off-guard. Even though the 28-year-old tried coming closer to Mary and threw a flurry of punches, the Indian escaped unscathed.
This has been her strategy throughout the tournament against younger opponents. In the first round, she easily saw off Kazakhstan’s Aigerim Kassenayeva with a win via unanimous decision and then dispatched China’s Yu Wu in the quarter-finals. Kassenayeva was a 22-year-old while the Chinese boxer was a year older at 23.
While Mary hardly broke a sweat in her two previous bouts, she was expected to get a stern test from Hyang-Mi, who is considerably taller and has a longer reach. But inside the ring, every time Mary was in a dangerous position, she ducked and weaved with alacrity.
Tactical Mary
“Taller boxers make a difference. They don’t have to come too close to the opponent, and that was a challenge today. But Mary is a very smart boxer. She did not go close and forced the North Korean to come forward,” Yadav says.
Having fought Hyang-Mi at the Asian Championships earlier this year, Mary knew her style but that was an advantage the former had too. While many boxers would spend hours getting to know their opponents better, Mary prepares differently.
“I try to show her some videos but she really does not care,” Yadav adds. “She watches [the bouts] about 30 seconds and asks me to not to show her any videos. Even before the bout, I tried to show a clip, and she just watched it for just 10 seconds.”
The build-up to the final will be no different. Yadav says that she will not change her routine for the summit bout against Hanna Okhota of Ukraine. “She is a really strong girl with some strong punches. Mary beat her in the Poland tournament, but again, she [Okhota] would have studied Mary’s style as well. It’s all about who gets their movement right on the day,” Yadav says.
The 22-year-old Ukrainian dominated Japan’s Madoka Wada in her semi-final bout. And, she is unfazed by Mary’s iconic status. “The bout in Poland was 50-50. She is a very experienced boxer and that made the difference. I know she is strong but I’ll do my best in the final,” Okhota said with the help of a translator.
Citing the same bout in Poland, Mary was confident that she can repeat the result in New Delhi as well. “I am going to try my best in the final. I have fought her before in Poland so I will once again try to beat her here in front of the fans who have cheered me throughout,” she said.