Former national women's boxing coach, Anoop Kumar, to train professionals

Former national coach for women boxers, Anoop Kumar, who was recently replaced by Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu, has decided to go the professional route and has signed up with the Indian Boxing Council (IBC). Kumar will join American trainer Joe Clough, who was earlier brought in by IBC, to train boxers licensed by the body. [caption id=“attachment_3022490” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Represenational image. Reuters[/caption] Kumar will train women boxers, including Asian Games bronze-medallist L Sarita Devi. Sarita is among the 40 boxers to join the 30-day training camp at the Sports Authority of India’s National Boxing Academy in Rohtak. The camp will start from 27 December. “Professional boxing is a different ball game. Irrespective of past success, calibre and achievements, a boxer requires to unlearn and learn a lot to succeed as a professional. The difference is like a 100-metre dash and running a marathon,” Clough, the Technical Director at the camp, said. “I have said in the past as well that India has a strong pool of talent. We need to strengthen their self-belief and instil confidence. You need to monitor this talent, which has a potential to give to the world the next ‘Evander Holyfield’ from India,” Clough added.