Knock-out king Vijender Singh goes Head-to-head with Francis Cheka at face-off event
Indian boxing sensation & WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight Champion Vijender Singh and Former World Champion Francis Cheka, came face to face today at a heated face-off event in New Delhi. The ‘Night Of The Champions’ bout is all set to happen on the 17th of December 2016 in New Delhi.
Indian boxing sensation & WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight Champion Vijender Singh and Former World Champion Francis Cheka, came face to face today at a heated face-off event, promoted by Neerav Tomar, MD, IOS Boxing Promotions held at Hotel Le Meridian in New Delhi.
This is the first time, after having heated war of words through media; Cheka and Singh faced each other. Till date, Cheka is the most challenging and most experienced opponent that Vijender will face in the ring.
The 34-year old number one professional boxer from Tanzania has previously been the World Champion in the same weight category (Super Middleweight) as Vijender. Cheka has 43 fights under his belt with no less than 17 Knockout wins. He has been training rigorously for the past couple of months, to win the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight Champion Title from Vijender. He has also come out in the open and claimed that Vijender hasn’t fought anyone like him and he will prove to be his toughest challenge.
Cheka, looked confident and more prepared to take on Vijender, speaking on the occasion he said, “ Vijender is like a child who has just gotten into the professional ring and doesn’t know what all challenges will he face. I think on the 17th I will teach him about professional boxing, while punching him hard on his face. I have been preparing very hard for this, this is like a whole new challenge for me, and I am all geared up and set to take him down. Only 4 days to go. My punches will knockout Vijender in the early rounds in front of his homecrowd”.
Vijender Singh on the other hand has been working hard with his trainer Lee Beard back in Manchester and has just recently returned to India after a span of almost 3 months. Lee, had put Vijender on some hardcore training session to increase his strength and stamina to last him for 10 rounds and more.
The knockout king, who has a record of 7 out of 7 wins, will face his biggest professional boxing challenge in Francis Cheka. The last fight against Australia’s Kerry Hope made Vijender Singh the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middle Weight Champion and put him at number 10 in the WBO ranking.
Speaking on the challenge by Cheka, Vijender smirked, “He thinks I am a beginner in the professional ring, I will just wait for 4 more days and show him what a child’s punch feels like. I have been and will always be the good boy of boxing I only let my punches do the talking. I won this title with so much pride in front of my people, with their support and love and I am not going to let it go that easily.”
Neerav Tomar, Promoter, IOS Boxing Promotions; the man behind Vijender Singh’s professional boxing career looked confident of the bout that is to take place in the next couple of days. Speaking on the occasion he said, “ Me and my team have put in our blood and sweat into organizing this bout, we have been working on this for almost 4 months now. As far as Vijender is concerned I am sure of another fabulous win from him. We have also brought in a few more new boxers for our undercard fights, and also gotten into contracts with a couple of them. I am hoping with this move we are able to bring in professional boxing at par with other sports in our country. To bring new young boxers into the pro ring we have just signed Pardeep Kharera and Kuldeep Dhanda who will be making their appearance as undercard fighters on 17th December.”
Vijender Singh looked unnerved by the words that were thrown at him by Cheka, as he stood tall in front of the Tanzanian boxer. Whereas Cheka was slightly moved by Vijender’s confidence as he approached closer to face him.
Only time will tell, whether Cheka can only talk the talk or will he show the same arrogance when he finally comes face to face with Vijender in the ring on 17th December 2016.
Apart from the Title Defense bout, the Night Of The Champions has five other undercard fights following up to the main bout. IOS Boxing Promotions has brought in boxing stars form within India and other countries for undercard fights. Boxers like Pardeep, Kuldeep, Dharmender, Deepak and Rajesh have been roped in by the organization. All the boxers have an excellent level of achievement in amateur boxing and have moved on to professional boxing either recently or will debut with Night Of The Champions.
1. In 67 Kg weight category- Pardeep Kharera, is another scintillating signing by IOS Boxing Promotions, he has had an excellent amateur boxing career with winning a gold in his first ever exhibition fight at Philippines. He went on to win three other gold medals in state championships. Pardeep turned towards professional boxing, last year and has fought two bouts under IBC; he was victorious in one and lost the other one. Pardeep is now going to come back with ‘Night Of The Champions’ and fight his third professional bout against Scott Edwards, who comes from Australia. Scott has previously fought 4 bouts and has been victorious in all, with all of them resulting in Knockouts. Edward currently holds the Australia- New-South Wales State Welterweight Title.
2. In 61 Kg weight category- Kuldeep has fought two professional bouts since he turned pro earlier in April this year. Dhanda has been a part of the ‘Singh vs Hope’ event carried out by IOS Boxing Promotions, earlier in July this year. He was pitted against a boxer from Thailand, Vachayan Khamon, and won the bout with unanimous decision. Earlier he has also fought Vijay Gaikwad, which also turned in his favour. Kuldeep has now signed up with IOS Boxing Promotions, to take a step forward in his professional boxing and is ready to fight his next professional bout, on the ‘Night of The Champions’ fight night against, Egy Rozten who hails from Indonesia. Egy comes with way more experience as compared to our Haryana lad Kuldeep. Rozten has 19 bouts with a total of 79 rounds under his belt; he has own 5 bouts with 3 KO wins.
3. In 91 Kg weight category- Dharmender Grewal will take on Abasi Kyobe from Uganda, Abasi will debut with the Night Of The Champions. Dharmender on the other hand has previously fought 2 bouts with 1 resulting in a Knockout win and the other also in his favour with unanimous decision.
4. In 67 Kg weight category- Deepak Tanwar will take on Sutriyono Bara Boys, from Indonesia. Sutriyono has 6 bouts and 22 rounds under his belt, which gives him an edge over Akhil, who will be fighting for the first time. Deepak has previously fought three professional bouts since he turned professional in 2015 and has won all 3 bouts with one of them resulting in a Knockout win.
5. In 61 kg weight category- Rajesh Kumar will take on Mubaraka Sseguya, from Uganda, has 11 bouts with 40 rounds under his belt, with a total of 8 wins and 4 KO’s. On the other hand, Rajesh Kumar who hails from Bhiwani has fought 6 fights since the last year and has one all these bouts, with one resulting in a Knockout win.
