Name: Vijender Singh Beniwal
Born: 29 October 1985, Kaluwas village, Bhiwani district
State: Haryana
Sport: Boxing
Early life
Vijender Singh was born on 29 October 1985 in Kaluwas, a village close to Bhiwani in Haryana. His father, Mahipal Singh, drove buses for Haryana Roadways and worked extra hours to pay for his sons’ education. Vijender was inspired to take up boxing by his elder brother Manoj, himself a boxer, who joined the Indian Army through his boxing credentials in 1998 and then helped fund Vijender’s training. Vijender trained at the Bhiwani Boxing Club, where coach Jagdish Singh spotted his potential, and went on to earn a degree from Vaish College in Bhiwani while competing.
Breaking through as an amateur
Vijender won silver at the sub-junior nationals in 1997 and gold at the National Championships in 2000, before competing at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the welterweight division, where he lost in the early rounds. He won silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and bronze at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, moving up to middleweight as his career developed.
Bronze at the Beijing Olympics
Vijender’s breakthrough came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he beat Badou Jack of Gambia, Angkhan Chomphuphuang of Thailand and Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in the middleweight division before losing to Cuba’s Emilio Correa in the semi-final. The result gave him a bronze medal and made him the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal, a result that changed the profile of Indian boxing almost overnight. The following year he was ranked the world’s number one middleweight boxer by the International Boxing Association, a first for an Indian boxer, and he added a bronze at the 2009 World Championships in Milan.
More Commonwealth and Asian Games medals
Vijender won bronze in the middleweight division at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and gold at the Asian Games in Guangzhou the same year, beating Uzbekistan’s Abbos Atoev in the final. He added a further Commonwealth Games silver at Glasgow in 2014, giving him medals at three consecutive Commonwealth Games.
Turning professional
In June 2015 Vijender signed with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions and turned professional, a decision that ruled him out of a fourth Olympics at Rio in 2016. He won the vacant WBO Asia Pacific super middleweight title in 2016 against Australia’s Kerry Hope, and added the WBO Oriental super middleweight title in 2017 with a win over China’s Zulpikar Maimaitiali, retaining both titles later that year against Ghana’s Ernest Amuzu. He built a professional record of 13 wins from 14 fights, nine of them by knockout, his only defeat coming to Russia’s Artysh Lopsan in 2021, and later signed with the American promotion Top Rank.
Recognition and life after the ring
Vijender received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2009, sharing the honour with Sushil Kumar and Mary Kom, the first time three athletes received it together, and the Padma Shri in 2010. He also made occasional appearances on screen, including a role in the film Fugly, and has spoken publicly about the lack of support and facilities for boxing in India compared with cricket. He later moved into public life, entering electoral politics and, in January 2026, was appointed to the Asian Boxing Council by the Boxing Federation of India. He is married to Archana Singh, and they have two sons.
Achievements and awards
Bronze medal, middleweight boxing, Beijing Olympics 2008; gold medal, Asian Games 2010; silver, Commonwealth Games 2006 and 2014, bronze, Commonwealth Games 2010; bronze, World Amateur Boxing Championships 2009; world number one ranking, middleweight, 2009; professional record of 13 wins from 14 fights; WBO Asia Pacific and WBO Oriental super middleweight titles; Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, 2009; Padma Shri, 2010.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
