I wanted to fight: Satish on boxing with 13 stitches

Tokyo, August 1

A badly bruised Satish Kumar (+91kg) put up a gutsy performance against reigning world champion Bakhodir Jalolov but it was not enough to upstage the rampaging Uzbek as the Indian boxer made a quarterfinal exit here today.

Taking the ring with multiple stitches on his forehead and chin after sustaining cuts in the pre-quarters, Satish lost 5-0. Satish, a two-time Asian Games bronze-winner, had scripted history by just qualifying for the Games as he was the first super heavyweight from India to achieve the feat.

“He is a bit low right now but when he settles down, he will realise how big it was for him to fight it out with those cuts,” Indian boxing’s High Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI. “The fight he gave despite the blows is praiseworthy. Every punch that Jalolov connected added to his pain, he was feeling it all through,” he added.

The 32-year-old Army man stood his ground in the biggest bout of his career, occasionally managing to land a shot with his right hand. But Jalolov dominated the proceedings all through, relying on his imposing demeanour and excellent counterattacking game to sail through.

My wife wanted me not to fight, says Satish

Despite the defeat, Satishsaid people were congratulating him. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing, people are congratulating me as if I won,” Satish said. “I am on medication right now but I know how badly bruised my face is. My chin has seven stitches and my forehead has another six. Par marta kya na karta, I knew I wanted to fight. Otherwise I would have lived with that regret of what if. Now I can be at peace and also probably a little content with myself that I gave my best,” he said.

“My wife had told me not to fight. My father also said that it is too much to watch me fight like this. That’s not unexpected, family can’t see you hurt. But then they understood that I wanted to do this,” said the father of two school-going children.

Were his children watching the bout? “Yes they were, I have a son and a daughter (one in Class I and other in Class II) and they were both watching. I hope they felt proud,” he said.

“Jalolov came up to me after the bout and said ‘good bout’. It felt nice to be acknowledged like that. Then my coaches also told me how proud they are of me, that nobody expected me to go this far,” the man from Bulandshahr said. — PTI

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