Vijender Singh vows to take out Chinese rival

Mumbai: The prevailing border tensions between India and China, has given more zing to Saturday’s Pro Boxing fight in ‘Battleground Asia’ between India’s Vijender Singh and China’s Zulpikar Maimaitiali.

Both boxers have  indulged in verbal punches already with Vijender reportedly saying ‘Chinese products don’t last long’ and Maimaitiali responding, ‘I will show Vijender what Chinese are capable of’.

On Wednesday, at his first brief training session with Manchester-based trainer Lee Beard here, Vijender felt there was responsibility on him to defeat the Chinese opponent in front of his home crowd. “There is responsibility because it’s India-China. Right now the situation is bad so I feel this responsibility. People have been calling me to show support, some friends are coming to see the fight from the UK and US,” he said.

While Vijender is the current WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight champion, Zulpikar is the WBO Oriental Super Middleweight champion and whoever wins the fight on Saturday will claim the twin titles.

The Vijender-Zulpikar fight will be last of the fight night after six bouts that will also see Olympians Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar in action. “I am in best shape and totally confident. I will try to finish it at soon as possible,” he added.

The 31-year-old Vijender, with an unbeaten record in eight fights, including seven knockouts will be up against 23-year-old Chinese Southpaw with five knockouts in nine bouts. Vijender feels he will stay calm and focused.

“He is young, but he is strong kid and we are ready for it. He is younger, he can make mistakes, he is in rush. In the first round, he would like to take over everything but that’s the time you should be calm and stay away from that kind of mistake, use your reach.”