With a bronze medal in the World Championship, Deepak proved that he is no longer the second option
Poor financial condition, injuries and not getting a chance due to strong performer Amit Panghal at the international level did not deter Deepak Kumar Bhoria and the 25-year-old boxer proved his mettle by winning a bronze medal at the World Championships in Tashkent on Friday. Convinced. Hailing from Hisar, Haryana, Deepak started boxing on the advice of his uncle Ravinder Kumar. Ravinder himself could not realize his dream of becoming a boxer. His home guard father and housewife mother were not very happy with his decision to take up boxing but enrolled their 11-year-old son in Rajesh Sheoran’s Universal Boxing Academy.
Deepak’s first coach Sheoran told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, he came to me when he was 11 and a half years old. He was very thin and light in weight. “The coach said,” His weight was so low that when he was playing at the state level for the first time, we had to feed him more water so that he could make it to his weight category. Impressed by Deepak’s skills, Sheoran decided to take care of the boxer. He was a very talented and skilled boxer. He had all the qualities of a player. I saw potential in him. As a coach, it is always your dream to see one of your students play in the Olympics. I knew he had the talent to play in the Olympics.
Sheoran said, “After that we helped her a lot with her diet. I used to give my share of juice to her, to make sure she gets juice twice a day. We gave her ‘supplements’. Other students of the academy also used to give money to help with his diet.” Deepak suffered a severe blow when his right hand was fractured. The injury continued to bother him for almost two years before the surgery. To remain financially stable, Deepak occasionally worked collecting payments for a friend’s newspaper agency. He was then selected for the Indian Army.
He had a rivalry inside the ring with another army boxer, Amit Panghal. Both play in the same weight category. Sheoran said, “He did well in the internal competitions of the army. But his luck was always bad. They didn’t get anything quick. He defeated Amit Panghal 2-3 times, but still he did not get a chance to play in the national tournament.” When Panghal was scaling new heights by winning medals at the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and an unprecedented silver at the World Championships, Deepak was hit by an injury. Due to which he was not able to participate in the competitions.
Recalling the time, Deepak’s father said, “Deepak had said that he is his karma, my karma is with me, my time will also come.” He pulled off a major upset by defeating gold medalist Shakhobiddin Zoirov of Uzbekistan and was selected in the team in place of Panghal on the basis of the new selection policy. The new selection policy, drawn up by High Performance Director (HPD) Bernard Dunn, assesses boxers on the basis of camp performance with previous bouts.
