NEW DELHI: A showdown between six-time world champion MC
Mary Kom and fiery
Nikhat Zareen looks imminent before the much-awaited selection trial - for the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers in China - between the two leading boxers.
The
Boxing
Federation of India (BFI) unveiled the team owners and players' draft for its first-ever professional league - The Big Bout - at a city hotel here on Tuesday. Mary Kom and Nikhat have been drafted in opposite side of their 51kg lightweight category.
While Mary Kom, 36 and mother of four, has been roped in by NCR Punjab Royals team, Nikhat, 23, will turn up for Odisha Warriors in the league, which will run from December 2 to 21. Another of Mary Kom's old nemesis,
Pinki Rani, will fight for Bengaluru Brawlers in the 51kg weight division.
This will be first meeting between Mary Kom and Nikhat ever since the controversy over selection trial for the first Olympic qualifier broke out in August this year, when the Telangana boxer was stopped from competing against the veteran Manipuri pugilist at the selection trials for the Ulan-Ude World Championships, paving the way for Mary Kom's automatic selection for the World meet.
The bout during the league would act as a precursor to what has already been hyped as the biggest draw of the women's trials to be held on December 29 and 30 in Delhi.
The league will coincide with the women's Nationals, slated from December 2 to 8 in Kannur, Kerala, but a senior BFI functionary informed that there was no other window to hold the league. To avoid criticism, the BFI has created three pools of boxers.
"A relatively junior team will travel for
South Asian Games
in Nepal. The second lot of 12 experienced boxers, including Mary Kom and Nikhat, will exclusively take part in the Big Bout. Rest of the female boxers will take part in the Nationals," the official said.