For Devendro Singh, boxing is more than just a passion. It’s a way of life and a means to earn a ‘decent living’.
It’s just a shade more than a decade when Devendro started his training in earnest at the Khuman Lampak Stadium in Imphal. His house in Yurembam Awang Leikai, Imphal West, is some 12km away from the boxing centre. He was 10 and could hardly reach the pedal of a bicycle. Yet, he would diligently cycle everyday to the centre and would never miss practice.
For Devendro, it’s his elder sister Sushila Devi who inspired him to take up the sport. “I used to see my sister train and fell in love with the sport,” says Devendro. Sushila, a national boxing champion then, guided him in his formative years.
By the time Devendro was 10, he had the boxing gloves on. “He always used my old gloves,” Sushila recollects.
The two used to practice in the courtyard of their house (three-and-a-half rooms with kaccha floor). What started as childhood fun, turned into an obsession. Later, it turned into an opportunity to lift his family out of poverty. Even now, when Devendro returns home, he spars with his sister at the same place. Devendro’s life changed when the Army selected him during a scouting programme in Imphal.
BB Mohanty, the ASI boxing coach, who spotted him feels he is special. “Selecting a handful of children was tough, but Devendro, even though he was so young, was unstoppable.”
Devendro’s indefatigable spirit resembles that of his hero, Dingko Singh, 1998 Asiad gold medallist. He created ripples when he beat 2008 Beijing Olympic silver medallist P Serdamba in the pre-quarters in London. His style of charging and punching earned him the sobriquet – Tornado.