By Shamya Dasgupta
Magnificent Mary just goes out and does things no one else has done, things few others consider doable. At 31, Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom became the first Indian woman to win a boxing gold medal at the Asian Games when she beat Zhaina Shekerbekova, six years her junior, 2-0 in the final of the 51-kg final on Wednesday in Incheon, South Korea.
It was a lopsided fight. To start with, Mary stayed back, inviting Shekerbekova to do the punching. Shekerbekova didn’t quite take the bait, and did enough to pick up a lead. After that though, it was vintage, aggressive Mary, the boxer who had figured out what her opponent was about. By the third round, it was one-way traffic.
It isn’t like Mary to be circumspect, not even at the start of a bout.
It was easy to see why she was this time, though.
When Mary returned to competitive boxing in 2008 after giving birth to twins, there was good news and bad news waiting for her. The good news was that women’s boxing had been included in the 2012 London Olympics. The bad news was that she was not quite in shape and the lowest-weight category she could hope to compete in at the Olympics was 51 kg. Post-delivery, she had the weight, but it wasn’t muscle. There was no better boxer in the world at her weight — 48 kg — but she had around three years to lose the useless weight, and then pack in useful weight to be competitive at 51 kg.
At 26, she wasn’t going to add inches to her just-above-five-feet frame.
What she could do was add weight behind her punches and try to take on boxers likely to be an inch or three taller than her. And finally, as she explained to me, “The 51-kg boxers were used to their weights, their bodies were comfortable. I wasn’t.”
Punching Above Her Weight
Somehow she qualified for the Olympics, somehow she punched her way — above her weight, almost literally — into the semifinals, before running into Nicola Adams, a much superior boxer, Mary’s age but four inches taller and a 51-kg boxer for much longer.
After the bronze in London, Mary could have focused on getting used to being a 51-kg person, but she chose to have another baby — her third — last year. Then followed another round of losing and gaining useless and useful weight and getting fit for the Asian Games.
She wasn’t good enough at the time the Commonwealth Games came calling, losing to Pinki Jangra in the qualifiers. Come Asiad, she beat the same Pinki to qualify. She was getting better. But Shekerbekova had won all her bouts 3-0 in the journey to the final. Mary had to be circumspect, watchful.
Bluster wouldn’t cut it. After over a decade-and-a-half of boxing at the highest level, Mary knows she can come back after a slow start, but not if she takes too much of a beating early on from a more powerful, younger boxer. This time, she did it all right. And for the umpteenth time in her career, she made history.
It seems like just the other day that Mary was out in an open-air ramshackle boxing ring in Hisar, Haryana. Some of us had never seen women boxers in India before, barely heard of their existence. This was 2003, the Asian Women’s Boxing Championship, and the North Koreans, we were informed, were the best in the world. But Mary had already won silver and gold in two editions of the World Amateur Championships (both in the 45-kg category), my friend Asit Banerjee, of the West Bengal State Boxing Association, told me. “Keep an eye on her,” Banerjee said. “Don’t close your eyes, she is so quick, the fight could be over before you know it.”
Faster, Higher, Stronger
She was quick. Very quick. Indeed, from the time the referee said ‘fight’, she was a red blur, and her opponent in the blue corner just a rag doll for her to beat up. She was much too good. Some of us might have watched the greats of the men’s sport live and on television over the years, and even thought Laila Ali the epitome of cool. But Mary — yes, there was something about Mary.
Revised, Updated Editions
Since then, she has won everything there is to win — bar the Olympic gold — written an autobiography and had a biopic filmed on her (both of which must need a few additions now), ensured financial stability for her once-poor family and has a home she is proud of.
To say that Mary is single-minded is an understatement. Those who know her, have worked with her, say that she knows little of what goes on around her. Boxing is all she thinks of. Her autobiography freely admits that motherhood, too, is something she chose as a duty to her family and husband. In every way, she has done what she wanted to for them.
Now, that big dream beckons again. Rio de Janeiro 2016. Gold. The Incheon gold is a great start in this latest of her comings. Who knows what will happen in Rio, but you can trust Mary Kom to punch as hard as she can.
The writer is Senior Editor, Wisden India
Magnificent Mary just goes out and does things no one else has done, things few others consider doable. At 31, Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom became the first Indian woman to win a boxing gold medal at the Asian Games when she beat Zhaina Shekerbekova, six years her junior, 2-0 in the final of the 51-kg final on Wednesday in Incheon, South Korea.
It was a lopsided fight. To start with, Mary stayed back, inviting Shekerbekova to do the punching. Shekerbekova didn’t quite take the bait, and did enough to pick up a lead. After that though, it was vintage, aggressive Mary, the boxer who had figured out what her opponent was about. By the third round, it was one-way traffic.
It isn’t like Mary to be circumspect, not even at the start of a bout.
It was easy to see why she was this time, though.
When Mary returned to competitive boxing in 2008 after giving birth to twins, there was good news and bad news waiting for her. The good news was that women’s boxing had been included in the 2012 London Olympics. The bad news was that she was not quite in shape and the lowest-weight category she could hope to compete in at the Olympics was 51 kg. Post-delivery, she had the weight, but it wasn’t muscle. There was no better boxer in the world at her weight — 48 kg — but she had around three years to lose the useless weight, and then pack in useful weight to be competitive at 51 kg.
At 26, she wasn’t going to add inches to her just-above-five-feet frame.
What she could do was add weight behind her punches and try to take on boxers likely to be an inch or three taller than her. And finally, as she explained to me, “The 51-kg boxers were used to their weights, their bodies were comfortable. I wasn’t.”
Punching Above Her Weight
Somehow she qualified for the Olympics, somehow she punched her way — above her weight, almost literally — into the semifinals, before running into Nicola Adams, a much superior boxer, Mary’s age but four inches taller and a 51-kg boxer for much longer.
After the bronze in London, Mary could have focused on getting used to being a 51-kg person, but she chose to have another baby — her third — last year. Then followed another round of losing and gaining useless and useful weight and getting fit for the Asian Games.
She wasn’t good enough at the time the Commonwealth Games came calling, losing to Pinki Jangra in the qualifiers. Come Asiad, she beat the same Pinki to qualify. She was getting better. But Shekerbekova had won all her bouts 3-0 in the journey to the final. Mary had to be circumspect, watchful.
Bluster wouldn’t cut it. After over a decade-and-a-half of boxing at the highest level, Mary knows she can come back after a slow start, but not if she takes too much of a beating early on from a more powerful, younger boxer. This time, she did it all right. And for the umpteenth time in her career, she made history.
It seems like just the other day that Mary was out in an open-air ramshackle boxing ring in Hisar, Haryana. Some of us had never seen women boxers in India before, barely heard of their existence. This was 2003, the Asian Women’s Boxing Championship, and the North Koreans, we were informed, were the best in the world. But Mary had already won silver and gold in two editions of the World Amateur Championships (both in the 45-kg category), my friend Asit Banerjee, of the West Bengal State Boxing Association, told me. “Keep an eye on her,” Banerjee said. “Don’t close your eyes, she is so quick, the fight could be over before you know it.”
Faster, Higher, Stronger
She was quick. Very quick. Indeed, from the time the referee said ‘fight’, she was a red blur, and her opponent in the blue corner just a rag doll for her to beat up. She was much too good. Some of us might have watched the greats of the men’s sport live and on television over the years, and even thought Laila Ali the epitome of cool. But Mary — yes, there was something about Mary.
Revised, Updated Editions
Since then, she has won everything there is to win — bar the Olympic gold — written an autobiography and had a biopic filmed on her (both of which must need a few additions now), ensured financial stability for her once-poor family and has a home she is proud of.
To say that Mary is single-minded is an understatement. Those who know her, have worked with her, say that she knows little of what goes on around her. Boxing is all she thinks of. Her autobiography freely admits that motherhood, too, is something she chose as a duty to her family and husband. In every way, she has done what she wanted to for them.
Now, that big dream beckons again. Rio de Janeiro 2016. Gold. The Incheon gold is a great start in this latest of her comings. Who knows what will happen in Rio, but you can trust Mary Kom to punch as hard as she can.
The writer is Senior Editor, Wisden India
