Has there ever been a world champion pro boxer from India and/or of Indian ancestry?

Forgot Khan, hes technically Indian ancestory

 

that brit featherweight akassh batia or summin lyk dat

 

Don't count, and its an insult.

 

The same way taiwanese are technically chinese ? :huh:think


:bart

 

Gurcharan Singh is one, was inactive for a few years but has come back to the scene, quarter finalist in Sydney 2000 Olympics :

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=74684&cat=boxer

Pradeep Singh is another:

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=300661&cat=boxer

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Mgt4UsFv0[/ame]

 

You'd think,given the poverty in the subcontinent,it may become a fertile breeding ground for boxing talent in the next twenty years.

 

Um, may I ask how .. ?

 

How? Apparently,Amir's a Punjabi from the Rajput caste. 'Technically' he could be said to have Indian ancestry.

 

my parents are from india, i was brought up in england, and boxing is generally looked down upon as any other combat sports in indian society, theres hardly any audience for sports like boxing. indian sports i still dominated by cricket,tennis,hockey u'll find few ppl who show an interest in combat sports. as for the issue of poverty any indian kid or any1 from indian parientage can tell u that the only way of making it to the big time is through education Indian culture is very conservative in terms of education u'v got a better chance at being a decent doctor and putting food on the table in india then u have or making something out of boxing in a society that isnt familiar with the sport.

 

Haha, you mean those guys from like, over 1000 years ago?

 

Many Rajputs are Hindus too.
Given his caste, his ancestors were Rajput converts to Islam from Hinduism.
Also like Hindus ,Muslims in the subcontinent traditionally married within their own caste.
So...I dunno.

The Indian subcontinent is weird.There is far more variation in races and ethnicities than in the whole of Europe.
Amir for practical purposes is British-Pakistani.That is all.

 

Mary Kom aka K. C. Merry Kom. She fights in the 46 kgs Pinweight class. I saw her box in the Asian Women's Boxing Champioships when the competition was held last year in my hometown - Guwahati. She was making a comeback after getting married and becoming the mother of two kids. She lost in the finals. But later in the year she went on to win her 4th World Championship in China. She is from Manipur, which is a neighbouring state to my own state of Assam. But ethnically she is a Naga.

So Mino, you are half Indian?

 

Yes. And that Gold Medal came only in the last Olympics when Abhinav Bindra won a shooting event. But one Gold is true if you count only individual events. India has won several Olympic Golds in Hockey. Also the one and only boxing medal (a silver) came in the last Olympics. Courtesy - Vijender Singh.

Not that I am offering an excuse. It's a real shame that with such a huge population we have done so badly.

 

As far as any Indian moving to a foreign country and doing well in boxing is concerned, I remember reading an obituary in a Calcutta newspaper. It mentioned the death of a Bengali boxer who had moved to Great Britain and done well in pro boxing. I can't recall his actual name but do remember that in Britain he fought fought under the name of 'Puncher Pancho' or something like that. Much of this may be inaccurate. It has been a long, long time since I read that paper.