Before donning the boxing gloves again in 2016 looking to qualify for Rio Olympics, Mary Kom was on a two-year break. Although she was not qualified for the Olympics, she had nothing left to prove. With five world titles and an Olympic bronze medal already to her credit, the last question anyone would ask her would be—what next Mary. But here she was today, in the jam packed, glittering KD Jadhav arena at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium in New Delhi. She walked into the ring as the home crowd cheered and chanted “Mary”. And, she did not disappoint.
Fifteen minutes into the bout, she raised her hand in victory. She had just clinched her sixth world championship title, beating her Ukrainian opponent Hanna Okhota in the women’s light flyweight (45-48kg) category, becoming the world champion for a record sixth time. No woman boxer in the history of AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships has ever won seven medals (Ireland’s Katie Taylor won six medals between 2006-2016).
Her first five AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships titles were between 2002-2010, a five-in-a-row show. This, in a nutshell, is the legend of Mary, the greatest ever boxer in history of woman’s boxing.
If anyone ever needed to know what Mary Kom means to the boxing world, they only had to see how charged was the arena when she walked in. The stadium echoed her name, the shouts and cheer got louder with every punch. The Ukrainian never stood a chance.
After her victory, she admitted that she was under tremendous pressure. “Before this tournament started, I told you I will win, now I did it,” she said.
She credited her vast experience for ending this campaign on a winning note. “I have a lot of experience. These days, there are so many opponents and all are strong. I have been fighting in a higher weight category (51kg) against taller and fitter boxers. Most are younger to me; may be they are very strong and intelligent too. But I am more experienced and mentally stronger and so these bouts seem easy for me. For the first two titles, I used to box only with power and strength. In boxing, any result is possible. But in the the ring, nobody can beat me (I go with that belief),” she said.
All her experience was on display today as she went on the offensive from the very beginning, landing one punch after another. Okhota could only play catch up after that.
Terming her the Maradona of women’s boxing, foreign coach of the Indian women’s boxing team Raffaele Bergamasco was all praise for her. “Mary is very talented, very blessed. She is also a very shrewd boxer,” he said. “Today was all about Mary’s experience. The gap between her and the Ukrainian last month was this much (shows a big gap with his two hands), today Mary simply outdid her,” he added.
Bergamasco further said Mary was under immense pressure to win and she was very much aware of the same. “She has not slept in the last two days. She was under pressure to win in front of home crowd. That she could win today is credit to her,” he said.
Mary Kom competed mainly in the flyweight (51kg) between 2011 and 2016 due the possibility of qualifying for the Olympic games. She returned to light flyweight in 2017 and won the Ho Chi Minh City ASBC Asian Confederation Women’s Boxing Championships exactly one year ago.
Mary Kom's international record at the light flyweight category in 2018 after her final in New Delhi: 15 wins, one loss. However, she is not yet ready to take a call on her future plans. “I will decide later. I came into the 51kg category for Olympics. It is not so easy to take the pressure again,” she said after her bout.