Death of boxing

When legendary boxer Muhammad Ali passed away earlier this month, there was deep mourning in Karachi’s Lyari locality, known for its rich boxing heritage. The people of Lyari might well have been mourning the death of Pakistan boxing. From being one of the more important Olympic disciplines for the country – Pakistan has won more medals in boxing at the international and Asian levels than any other sport – boxing is now a pastime for a small minority in this country. Internationally, Pakistan’s standing has shrunk to the negligible size of an also-ran, something that was underlined yet again recently when the country’s boxers failed to even come close to winning a berth at this year’s Olympic Games. Pakistan made a last-ditch attempt to qualify for Rio’s boxing event by fielding five boxers at the world qualifying round but all of them were eliminated in the preliminary stage of the competition. It is hard to imagine that back in the eighties and nineties, Pakistani boxers were a force to be reckoned with both at the international and Asian levels. Though Hussain Shah remains the most accomplished of Pakistani pugilists, having won an Olympic medal in the Seoul Games in 1988, there were also the likes of Abrar Hussain, who dominated the Asian scene for several years.

Pakistan still has many talented boxers like Muhammad Waseem but due to a variety of reasons they continue to under-achieve at the international level. Among the chief reasons is the fact that the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) has been in turmoil for quite some time, leaving national boxing affairs unattended or, worse, badly dealt with. The country’s top boxers aren’t getting proper coaching while foreign training trips, which were a norm back in the nineties, have become few and far between. Stuck between a rock and hard place, some of the top national boxers are seriously considering switching from amateur to professional. They are of the view that even fighting in some second or third tier bouts they might be able to earn a living for themselves. It’s a sorry state of affairs for Pakistan boxing and unless the concerned authorities take serious steps to address these problems, the sport will continue to slide into oblivion.