Vikash Krishan leaves pro-boxing to represent India in Tokyo Olympics

08/22/2019

Nine months after he had turned pro, Commonwealth Games champion Vikash Krishan has returned to India aiming to find a place in Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics. It was in 2016 that AIBA had changed rules making pro boxers eligible to qualify in Olympics through WSB and APB tournaments.

Krishan has played two professional bouts since turning pro and won both of them and was preparing for the third one when he suffered a back injury. However, when he saw a chance at the Olympics, he left everything and returned to the Patiala camp.

“I can qualify for the Olympics as an amateur boxer only. I told Top Rank when I was signing my contract that my focus is on that and despite missing my pro bout, I cannot miss the Olympics,” said Krishan, reported Scroll.

However, Krishan would have to wait for another month to start his training for the stress fracture at his back.

“It’s been a month that I came back and I returned to participate in Tokyo Olympics. I have some back issues so I am recovering. Once that is done, I will start my full training.

“I was supposed to fight on the same card as Vijender in July. But my back gave me a lot of issues. I had suffered a stress fracture and it takes a lot of time to recover,” Krishan added.

However, Krishan would need not only hard work but luck as well to have a shot at the Olympics. With BFI selecting Ashish in the 75 kg to compete at the World Boxing Championships, Krishan would have to wait till November for his trials in the case Ashish returned from Moscow without a medal.

Apart from that, with the International Olympic Committee taking over the Olympics qualification process from AIBA, Krishan could only qualify for the Tokyo Games through the world and continental qualifiers. However, the 27-year-old sounded confident about his chances and credited his nine-month professional boxing training for it.

““I wasn’t this confident before the London and Rio Games. After boxing in the pro circuit, it’s completely different. I can win a medal. It’s much harder in pro where one punch can knock you down however good boxer you are.

“As a boxer in pro, you are alone. You have to manage everything and that makes you more dependent and you think a lot,” he said.