"Who Nikhat Zareen?” asked an uncharacteristically spiteful MC Mary Kom when the rivalry between the two boxers hit a crescendo in 2019.
This was Mary Kom after having humbled the young pretender in an all-or-nothing bout for a spot in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Nikhat, tearfully, accepted the defeat and her fate, but she wasn’t about to let one loss derail her young career.
The 26-year-old from Nizamabad in Telangana may never reach Mary Kom’s stature as an icon, but she has ensured that the Manipuri legend won’t be asking who Nikhat is - spitefully or otherwise - anymore.
Nikhat, who won her second world title on Sunday to emulate Mary Kom, was one of four Indian gold medallist boxers at the Women’s World Championships in Delhi.
“I remember 2019 so clearly,” she tells DH. “After my shoulder injury in 2017, everyone had written me off. ‘Nikhat can’t box anymore’, ‘she is washed up’, they all said. It was so irritating and annoying to hear those things, but I kept myself positive. I knew I had one job to do and that is to give it my all. No distractions. None.”
A day after the Tokyo Olympics on August 8, 2021, Nikhat put up a post on social media, and it showed a digital board that read: “1082 days, 18 hours, 11 minutes, 44 seconds.” It was a countdown for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the caption read: “The road to Paris begins. One aim: gold medal”
Since that post, Nikhat has won four golds - including two at the worlds - and has been undefeated for over a year.
“This was my first experience in this weight category (50kg), and I was unseeded so it was all a bit different and the quality of the opponents too was good. I had to tweak my strategy a bit along the way but it was not that hard,” she says.
“As far as my weight is concerned, I didn’t lose power after dropping weight, but it is hard to keep the weight off. Also, when having back-to-back bouts as I did, you tend to get a bit more tired. It was a good lesson for me.”
Another lesson she had to learn along the way was to detach herself from her mother’s ringside expressions. Parveen Sultana - Nikhat’s mother - watched her daughter fight live for the first time when Nikhat taped up against Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Tam in the final.
“She has always avoided watching my bouts live because she can’t stand it when I get hit,” Nikhat reveals. “Even here, I cut my lip during the final, and when I came back to the dressing room to meet her, she didn’t congratulate me, she only asked about my lip.”
In a sense, this was expected because Sultana was against Nikhat boxing as a child. “She was always worried about my face and what if I get beaten up and I don’t get married (laughs).”
Thankfully, Jameel Ahmad - Nikhat’s father - was convinced that his daughter was destined for greatness in the ring, and insisted that the family support her. “I would not be here without him,” says Nikhat. “I am so lucky to have parents like them.”
And so, she wants to show her gratitude by winning medals at the upcoming Asian Games and eventually the Olympics in Paris. “My dream is the Olympics and I won’t stop until I get there,” she says. “All this fame is new and it’s nice, but I am determined to make this opportunity count. First the Asian Games, then the Olympics. I will not rest until I get that medal.”