Ring not ready, bouts on hold at National Boxing Championships
The opening day of India’s senior National boxing championships, which was scheduled to begin at Greater Noida on Sunday (January 4), was delayed by several hours because the two rings in which action was to take place was not constructed.
Boxers who had their bouts scheduled for the afternoon session arrived to find only empty floors at the Gautam Buddha University. Bouts scheduled for 2 pm eventually got underway only around 6:30 pm. Normally, rings are put up at least a day before the start of any national boxing competition.
Boxers were told to wait while the rings were hastily put up at the site. The opening day was set to have 42 bouts in the men’s category and 38 in the women’s division. The nearly four-hour delay, however, means that it is unlikely that all can be completed before the end of the day.
“We have been told that maybe the women’s boxers will have their bouts postponed by a day,” said a coach who didn’t wish to be named. The coach added that a similar delay happened at the sub junior nationals last year at the same venue although at that time the cause of that delay was excessive rain. “This is the first time I’ve seen that we can’t have a national championships (begin) because the ring hasn’t been set up,” the coach said.
Any delay is far from ideal though. “When a boxer comes for a competition, they have to cut weight so that they are allowed to compete. We have been waiting here from the morning without any idea on when we will be able to compete. We have not eaten food because we have a strict diet plan before any competition,” a boxer who didn’t wish to be named added.
Over 600 boxers will be competing across 10 weight divisions in the men’s and women’s category with the medal winners earning selection to the national camp which will prepare boxers for competitions like the Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Sportstar has reached out to Boxing Federation of India to learn the reason for the delay in the construction of the boxing ring and will update this copy when a response is received.
Published on Jan 04, 2026