Hyderabad, India – Once when Nikhat Zareen came home with a bleeding nose, her mother burst into tears. “Your face will be spoiled,” she said, worrying how her girl would find a groom.
Nearly a decade later, Zareen on Sunday became the second Indian after Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom to win the women’s boxing world championship two years in a row.
It was a formidable win for the unseeded player who, after winning the 2022 World Championship in the 52kg category, dropped to 50kg for this year’s tournament in New Delhi. The drop was prompted by her desire to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, a victory that is her next dream.
“I feel great, especially coming from a small town like Nizamabad, and winning gold in the World Championship twice was like a dream come true. I could make my country proud with consecutive gold medals. It’s a great feeling,” said the 26-year-old who defeated Nguyen Thi Tam in the final.
“Can girls box?”
Zareen’s parents say she fell in love with boxing as a young girl. Watching guys battle it out, her first question was, “Can girls box?”
“Why not?” Mohammed Samsamuddin, her first boxing coach, replied.
“I felt boxing was like love at first sight for Nikhat,” the 72-year-old former coach told Al Jazeera.
Zareen, the third of four daughters of Mohammad Jameel Ahmed and Parveen Sultana, also won her parents’ blessing. A state-level football player himself, Jameel worked as a salesman in Saudi Arabia before returning to his hometown to supervise Nikhat’s sports career.
“My father used to train me in Nizamabad and I had quite success in athletics. But in a sports meeting, there was a boxing event where not a single girl participated in the tournament,” Nikhat said in an interview in 2011 when she won the Junior World Boxing Championship in Turkey.
“So I asked my dad why there weren’t any girls in boxing. I asked if girls don’t do boxing. But he said girls can box.
“Most people think that girls should study and then get married. But my father, who is a sportsman, encouraged me to take up boxing. However, my mother was a little scared. She was very worried,” she said.
From athletics to boxing
But Zareen hadn’t started to become a boxer. A “bundle of energy” as a child with a “tomboyish streak” as her father described her, he decided to channel that energy.
“She was running around our small home in Naseem Colony in Vinayak Nagar in Nizamabad town of Telangana and was always up for mischief,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera.
He only took her to a training center to keep the restless nine-year-old girl busy. She surprised everyone, including her father, with her enthusiasm for athletics.
“She excelled in 100m, 200m, long jump and high jump,” said Ahmed. “She competed in a state athletics event before her eye fell on an indoor boxing gym.”
It was the place where Samsamuddin trained boxers. Nikhat watched the male boxers in action for days before wearing the gloves.
“I was stunned at first, but once she put on the boxing gloves, there was no turning back,” said Samsamuddin.
In 2009, when Zareen was 13, she was spotted by Omkar Nath Yadav, a boxing talent scout, at a state government event in Karimnagar district to promote sports in rural areas.
“She was a skinny girl. After watching a few matches, I was impressed with her footwork and shot speed. She was hungry to win and I decided to take a risk,” said Yadav.
He entered Zareen’s name for the national games held in the state of Punjab, for which he said he also received some criticism. Many asked how the young girl could box with tall, 18-year-old boxers from the states of Haryana and Punjab.
“But she was tough. She justified my faith with a courageous show. There was a spark,” Yadav said.
“You hit me, I hit you”
Zareen’s roller coaster journey in a hitherto male stronghold had begun. “You hit me, wait, I’ll hit you too,” became her mantra, she says.
In 2010, she won the gold and best boxer award at the junior national championships. The following year, the 15-year-old boxer made history when she won gold in the 50 kg flyweight category at the Junior World Boxing Championship in the Turkish city of Antalya.
Ahmed, convinced that her daughter was destined to become world champion, in 2014 moved to Hyderabad, the South Indian city that has produced some of India’s most prominent sports stars: Sania Mirza in tennis, PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in badminton, Gagan Narang in shooting, and Sreeja Akula in table tennis.
“I knew this boxer was born to win. There was that killer instinct that made her a strong boxer. She would not shy away from any hard blows she received from the boys in the training center of Nizam College,” India’s national boxing coach Emani Chiranjeevi told Al Jazeera.
“I thought this girl was going to make waves. She exuded confidence and practiced together for hours. She was very strong mentally and that helped her to grow in stature.”
Chiranjeevi also praised Ahmed for assisting her daughter. “He would come by scooter, stay in the gym and watch her diet,” he said.
When Mary Kom asked, “Who is Nikhat?”
Mary Kom, a six-time world boxing champion, is considered India’s greatest boxer and even inspired a Bollywood biopic. Now 40 and a mother of two, the boxer from the northeastern state of Manipur won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics in the 51 kg flyweight category.
Meanwhile, Zareen also started to rise in the same weight category. She took bronze at the senior national championships and won the Belgrade International Championship in 2018. The following year, she worked her way to gold at Strandja Memorial, Europe’s oldest international boxing event, and silver at the Thailand Open.
But Zareen failed to get past Mary Kom in the India Open that year. In fact, Mary Kom was selected for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Mary Kom’s name for Tokyo was announced, Zareen demanded a “due process” and called for a fight against her. But her plea was rejected by the Boxing Federation of India, who defended her decision, citing Mary Kom’s “consistent performance”.
Meanwhile, in 2019, an exasperated Mary Kom asked, “Who is Nikhat Zareen?”
Zareen then wrote to the Federal Sports Minister demanding another “fair chance”. Much to Mary Kom’s chagrin, the minister ordered a fight between the two players. Mary Kom defeated Zareen with a 9-1 verdict, their acrimonious “trial” ending without a usual handshake.
The controversy upset Zareen, but she said she quickly came to terms with it. “I approach challenges in a positive way. There will always be obstacles. But these challenges make me a much stronger person,” she said.
She says boxing teaches people how to deal with challenges. “It makes you physically and mentally stronger. After I became a boxer, I felt more independent. I was not afraid because I could protect myself.”
Zareen also said she is inspired by Mary Kom’s achievements in world boxing. As the veteran left the scene, Nikhat cemented her supremacy with back-to-back gold in the 52kg and 50kg categories in Istanbul and New Delhi. She also won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.
But her gold-winning performance in Turkey last year remains a special memory. “Turkey is a lucky country for my daughter. She won the junior world championship and the senior world gold there,” said Ahmed.
Olympic medal next dream
Zareen told Al Jazeera that it was difficult to win consecutive world championship gold medals.
“I won the first one in Istanbul in Turkey. It was my first championship gold medal. It’s special because I won outside of India and I didn’t have the support of the home crowd, the kind I got in the New Delhi championship,” she said.
“In this year’s world championship I fought six matches and I was unplaced since I was in the 50 kg category. But I beat an African champion, two-time Asian Games medalists, a Rio Olympics bronze medalist, and the Vietnamese girl, Nguyen Thi Tam, in the final.
“They were all tough opponents and I managed to win the gold. I was very happy because I could beat [Tam] in the final. I had lost to her in the Asian championship. I wanted to take sweet revenge and I did.”
About her growing fame, Nikhat says, “Who doesn’t like fame? Everyone enjoys the awards, fame and success. I am also enjoying it.
“But I am aware of the next few hurdles. I know I have to work hard. Until I achieve my dream of winning Olympic gold, I wouldn’t want to stop my hard work.”
Next target? The Asian Games to be held in September, she says.
“I will try to medal and qualify for the Paris Olympics. I hope to become the first female boxer to win an Olympic gold medal for my country.”