Akhil Kumar is an Indian international boxer, who represents India internationally since 1999. He specializes in open guarded style in boxing and currently one of the most successful male boxers of India. He is appointed as the national observer of the country for boxing along with Mary Kom.

He came to limelight for his achievements at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and the success at the Asian Championship in 2007. Kumar was fond of boxing since his childhood and started taking training during his toddler-age from the local boxing academy. He appeared in the YMCA championship in 1999 and began his professional boxing career officially with this competition. Kumar clinched a gold medal in his debut match and grabbed the limelight instantly as a young and emerging boxer.

He won gold medals consecutively at the Junior International Boxing Championship in 2001 and at International Invitational Boxing Championship in 2003. 2004, wasn’t a very good year for Kumar as he failed to make his impact at the 2004 Asian Olympics Qualifying match badly.

However, he made a brilliant comeback in 2005 with the Commonwealth Federation Boxing Championship in Glasgow and kept repeating that winning track in 2006 as well with the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. He has shown comparatively better performance in 2008 Beijing Olympics and AIBA World Cup championship with clear wins. However, his ending Olympic season wasn’t a happy one in the 2012 London Olympics due to his several injuries and overweight problem.
(as Compiled by Madhushree Das Ghosh)
(Profile Image from Facebook)