Manchester: Indian superstar Vijender Singh got his professional career off to an explosive start with a third round stoppage of Sonny Whiting at the Manchester Arena on Saturday.
Vijender Singh made a successful transition following a highly successful amateur career winning the Bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics and now aims to become India’s first ever professional world champion.
He got off to a great start utilising a hard jab and heavy right hand mixed with some hurtful body punching that had Whiting on the back foot. As Vijender warmed into the fight he started to hurt Whiting to the body and found the opening for his big overhand right. In the third, Whiting was slowing down from the constant heavy shots and Singh went on the attack, unleashing a brutal four-punch combination with the referee stepping in to halt the action at 2:08 of the round.
With the fight going out live in the UK on BoxNation and to India on Sony Six in front of an estimated 20m audience, a thrilled Singh said afterwards, “That was a great start to my career and I could of hoped for it to go any better,”
Vijender’s second fight has already been confirmed and he will head to the Harrow Sports Centre in North-West London on Friday 30th October.”
Vijender Singh said “I love Punjabi music and my entry on my favourite song boosted my morale while I entered the ring yesterday and WIN was the only word in my mind at that time. I am doing everything in the professional boxing for my country, Indian boxers and my win in the professional debut will open new doors for young boxers. I would like to thank Government of India, Haryana Government and my Haryana Police department for their support in starting this new journey. I am also thankful to Indian community for turning up in large numbers at Manchester Arena yesterday to cheer for me”.
He further added, “There is no time to rest, no vacation, I’m now excited to be having my second fight already, it will be on Friday 30th October at the Harrow Sports Centre in London and you will see more improvements from me.”
Neerav Tomar, MD & CEO IOS Sports & Entertainment said, “That was a superb performance by Vijender in his debut and there is much more to come from him as he develops under lee Beard. The best part was that Vijender was quite excited about his bout when he reached locker room just two hours before his debut. While leaving the locker room for ring, he was quite confident of his win and it happened. There was a lot of hype on Vijender’s debut fight and the response of Vijender’s debut fight on social media and everywhere else was amazing. Now it’s time for him to settle down and get ready for the second fight in Harrow on 30th October.”