Ajay Singh re-elected BFI President for 3rd consecutive term

Ajay Singh defeated Olympian boxer Jaslal Pradhan on 21 August, 2025 to be elected President of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for the third consecutive time. In the elections held in Gurugram, Ajay received 40 votes, while Pradhan got 26 votes.

• Pramod Kumar was elected General Secretary, while Pon Bhaskaran was elected Treasurer. Chairman of BFI’s Interim Committee and representative of World Boxing (WB) Fairuz Mohammed expressed satisfaction over the “fair and transparent” election process according to the “WB approved constitution.”
• The long-pending BFI elections were affected due to a legal battle amid allegations of irregularities, including “undemocratic” changes in BFI’s constitution, and also drew attention because of former Sports Minister Anurag Thakur’s name being rejected from the electoral college.
• The elections were held in the presence of Election Officer Justice (Retd.) Rajesh Tandon and head of BFI’s Interim Committee, Singapore resident Fairuz Mohammed, who was appointed as an observer by World Boxing.
• Singh, who was first elected to this post in 2016, said that his priority would be to focus on grassroots development.

Amateur Boxing

• Rooted in Egypt around 3000 BC, boxing first emerged as a global event in the 23rd Olympiad in 688 BC.
• In India too, records of a form of boxing called Mushti-Yuddha (fist fighting) are found in ancient texts, including the epic Mahabharata. The history of amateur boxing begins in 1867 AD, when the Queensberry Rules were first published.

India

• The first instance of the presence of amateur boxing in India was seen in 1925, when the Bombay Presidency Amateur Boxing Federation was formed.
• The first National Boxing Championship in India was held in 1950 at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation was born mainly due to the efforts of Mr. H.V. Pointon, who was President of the Bombay Presidency Amateur Boxing Federation from 1944 to 1948.
• At London 1948, Babu Lal recorded India’s first Olympic win in boxing in men’s bantamweight (54 kg) when he defeated Pakistan’s Alan Monteiro in the Round of 32.

Medal Winners

• The first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal was Vijender Singh, who won a bronze medal in the men’s middleweight (75 kg) category at the Beijing Olympics 2008.
• Women’s boxing was included in the Olympic programme at London 2012 and legendary Mary Kom won India’s second Olympic boxing medal that year, a bronze in the flyweight (51 kg) category.