Vijender Singh readying for longer bouts
Soon after he finished his second professional bout with a first round knockout win over Dean Gillen, Vijender Singh got his gloves and fist wraps off. The shift to the professionals has been one of drastic changes for the middleweight boxer. And while he has slowly gotten used to the various adjustments, the hand binding still causes some discomfort.
“I won’t say anything has been easy to adapt to. The change in training, in sparring, in the smaller gloves – nothing has been easy so far. Perhaps the hardest change to get used to was the way I had my fists wrapped before training and for bouts. As an amateur, we used larger gloves, so the wrapping wasn’t very tight. But for the professionals, my hands were wrapped so tightly that I felt the blood wouldn’t get there,” he says.
Vijender needs his hand wraps to be as tight as they are considering the power in his punches and the more limited nature of cushioning now on offer. Less secure handwraps might see his fists fracture on hitting his opponent.
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As it turns out, the only bruising was taken by his opponent as Vijender repeatedly hit him with a number of body shots. “After the bout, (Vijender’s trainer) Lee Beard asked me to go over to Dean and asked how he was feeling. He told me he was still hurting from the shots to the ribs,” says Vijender.
Gillen, unbeaten before the fight, was on paper a tougher opponent than the Vijender had faced on his debut. However the fight lasted a third as long.
“In my first bout , I was a bit carefull because I had not been in the ring since the 2014 Commonwealth Games. But for my second bout I had just come off a match, and I was confident of getting into the ring and winning,” explains Vijender.
And while he has only been in the professional circuit for a couple of months, the Indian says he has been trying to bring his knowledge into the ring. Against Gillen, Vijender was happy with the way he used his left jab. “Before the bout, Lee wanted me to work on my straight arm technique. This was a technique that allowed me to maintain the distance I wanted from my opponent. I was confident with the way I threw my left jab. I used a lot of body shots as well,” says Vijender.
With two stoppages in as many bouts, Vijender is satisfied with his progress but admits his career has only started. “I’m satisfied with my progress in my first couple of months but I know I have a long way to go. I hope I will have at least 35-40 fights in my career. I’ve only got two right now,” he says
His immediate goal he says will be to fight six round fights (his first two fights were for four rounds). “Fighting four round bouts was not difficult for me because I had fought three rounds all the time in the amateurs. I think I am ready for longer bouts now. I will be fighting again on December 19 and I think it will be a six round bout,” he says. The longer bout will require a change in training.
“I have been working on my skills and strength all this while, but now I will have to work a lot more on my endurance. I am expecting it to be very hard training. But it will be something new and that’s always been a lot of fun for me,” he says.
