LAHORE: The 2003 World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Nauman Karim has advised Pakistan’s boxing authorities begin an all out campaign to launch a professional boxing league which he said is the only thing which can arrest the country’s boxing decline.
“Unless you throw money into boxing nothing major can be brought into the circuit. And what I think is that professional league is the only solution if we want to develop our boxing,” Nauman told ‘The News’ in an informal chat.
“There is no money in boxing in Pakistan in this era. When we were playing the things were not that bad and we got incentives for our performances but after 2006 or so boxing started to decline. In order to arrest the decline there will be a need of taking tough decisions and boxing league will be very important,” he said.
“Once youth will see some charm they will start coming to the sport which is the richest in the world and we should make our top effort to revive the discipline in which we used to lift medals in bundles at the Asian level in the era of AIBA and PBF chief Professor Anwar Chowdhry,” said Nauman, whose brother Faisal Karim was also a fine fighter.
Despite the sorry state of the country’s boxing Nauman still sees some chance for the Pakistani boxers in the Olympic Qualifiers which will be held in the next few months in Italy and Bangkok.
“Yes, we have Zohaib Rasheed, who is currently the best fighter in the available lot. Qasim, Ibrahim and Ilyas Hussain are also good. Look, the big issue is how to train them. These boys need solid sparring partners and unless they are sent abroad for training with the best fighters they will not improve,” he said.
“Professor Anwar Chowdhry used to keep us abroad for five months ahead of any major event. We used to train with different kinds of sparring partners and that always helped us,” Nauman recalled.
Pakistan will be making its top effort to return to the Olympics fold when its fighters will feature in a couple of world qualification rounds in the next few months.
Pakistan last featured in the 2004 Athens Olympics in boxing. This time Pakistan also may press for a universality place.
Nauman also lamented that since 2006 boxing went on the decline. “Mohammad Waseem was the last fighter who was with us who latter was able to serve the country until 2014 by winning a few medals in international circuit. And now we have Zohaib, who can pull off surprise. Boxing suffered for a few years but I see a bright future of this sport in Pakistan,” he said.
“But the issue is how to keep him (Zohaib) and the rest of the boxers motivated. This is a big question mark. If you don’t earn money how you will get focused on your job,” said Nauman.