Indian boxer Nishant Dev says he has no qualms about calling himself a “God-given talent”.© X (Twitter)
Nishant Dev claims he has the perfect balance of speed, timing and power to be the best boxer in the world, which is why the Olympic-bound boxer (71kg) says he has no qualms about calling himself a “natural talent.” His claim may sound vain, but it's probably this confidence that earned him a spot at the Paris Olympics. The 23-year-old boxing prodigy shot to fame in 2021 when he reached the quarter-finals in the light-middleweight (71kg) division and made his debut at the World Championships.
Two years later, he has a World Championship bronze medal hanging around his neck and is now one of two Indian male boxers to fly to Paris for the Olympics.
“I am God-gifted with talent. I have it all within me,” Dev said when asked to elaborate on his strengths.
“I have the power, the speed and the timing, but the most important thing is the skill. If I have that, I can beat any boxer,” Deb said during a select media interaction on Wednesday.
After years of struggling with shoulder pain, Deb produced a dominant performance in the final qualifying round in Bangkok last week to qualify for Paris after narrowly missing out in the previous round in a heartbreaking defeat to American Omari Jones.
Confident in his abilities, Dev promised to take part in Pari's cut, come what may.
“There were some shortcomings on my part – not enough stamina in the third round, poor balance and a bit of weakness in my body functions. My body language was not what it should have been in the third round. I have worked hard to improve all of this,” he revealed.
The southpaw lost to Jones in the final seconds of the bout after the two fights were closely matched, a defeat he said left him with pent-up anger.
“I've been practicing a lot for this fight. I changed my strategy a bit. For example, in the first round, (usually) I start calmly. (But) this time, I gave it my all from the first second of the first round and continued until the last second of the fight.”
“I was angry with America (against Jones) and I was very confident I would win this time,” Dev said. Dev may consider himself talented but he acknowledges that talent alone is not enough and that hard work is also required, as was evident in his win in Bangkok.
“I used my skills and landed a lot of body shots to completely tire him out and drain his energy. I have a lot of strength inside me, but a boxing match cannot be won by strength alone.”
“You also need to add in the little things like speed, timing, power and boxing mentality, so I've mixed all of these.”No Indian male boxer made it to the first world qualifiers, throwing Indian boxing into a coaching crisis with high performance director Bernard Dunn tendering his resignation from Italy.
Though Dan's departure disrupted their training somewhat, Indian boxers soon found a silver lining in the crisis – they were allowed to train on their own beyond the time frame set by Dan.
“The extra training was helpful because boxers need to use their brains. Even if you give them an extra 30 minutes, it gives them time to think.”
“There is strategy and all that, but at the end of the day, a boxer has to use his brain during the fight.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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