Deepak Bhoria gained a bronze medal on the ongoing IBA Males’s World Boxing Championships after dropping 3-4 on factors to Billal Bennama of France within the semi-finals of the 51kg weight class on Friday.
The boxer from Hisar thus turned one of many solely 10 Indian male boxers to have medalled on the World Boxing Championships. Apart from Deepak, Mohammed Hussamuddin and Nishant Dev are additionally going to return from the present Worlds in Tashkent with a medal.
The World Championships medal is a outstanding second for the 25-year-old, who had stop sport in 2009 attributable to monetary constraints and was working as a newspaper vendor in 2015 to maintain himself.
Having began competing as an 11-year-old in 2008 on the insistence of his uncle, Deepak got here from a humble background. His father was a constable whereas his mom was a homemaker, who additionally labored within the farms.
Consequently, a yr into his fledgling boxing profession, the younger Deepak was pressured to hold up his boxing gloves as he couldn’t afford the bills on weight loss program and coaching.
Nonetheless, his coach, Rajesh Sheoran, was not prepared to surrender on Deepak. Sheoran coaxed him again into the ring and paid the cash wanted for his weight loss program and coaching bills.
Two years later, Deepak’s profession hit one other rocky patch.
He suffered a career-threatening fracture to his proper hand, which did heal in time, however continued to hassle him for nearly two years. Finally, he underwent surgical procedure. And at the same time as uncertainty loomed in his skilled profession, the damage gave him contemporary perspective. Since he was unable to maneuver his proper hand, he slowly strengthened his left hand. The boxer says that in hindsight, that concentrate on his weaker hand helped him immensely as we speak as he can use each arms as a weapon within the ring.
He continued with coaching however in 2015, life threw in a contemporary problem. As funds ran skinny, the boxer needed to work as a newspaper vendor to maintain himself.
Lastly, in 2016, issues began to lookup as he joined Madras Engineering Group, and later that yr, he was chosen by the Military Sports activities Institute.
Since then, he has by no means seemed again. Deepak gained a gold medal at 2018 Senior Nationwide Championship and in 2019 he gained a gold medal on the Makran Cup on his worldwide debut.
Deepak carried that confidence into the 2019 Asian Boxing Championships and stormed into the ultimate, the place he needed to accept the silver in a decent match that went in favour of Nodirjon Mirzakhmedov of Uzbekistan 3-2.
He introduced himself on the worldwide stage in 2021 when he defeated the 2016 Rio Olympic gold medallist and 2019 World Champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan on the Strandja Memorial event.
2022 was a tricky yr for Deepak as he sustained an damage in his proper shoulder in January and nearly spent the entire yr on the sidelines due to that.
However because the 2023 World Championships medal signifies, he’s again to his greatest.