MC Mary Kom’s exit from the Indian boxing stage has led to a new generation of contenders. Nikhat Zareen and her two World Championship gold medals were the answer to life after Mary. However, the country has continued to produce top-level boxers in the weight category that Kom inhabited the most during her career. Another name has now cropped up in that long line of contenders after Minakshi Hooda won her semifinal at the World Championships in Liverpool and set herself up for a gold medal match against Kazakhstan’s multiple-time Worlds gold medallist Nazym Kyzaibay.
Domestically itself, the competition is intense. Minakshi’s ascent to a spot in the women’s boxing team came when she beat Nitu Ghanghas. Nitu won a World Championship gold in New Delhi in 2023, a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2022 and has two youth World Championship gold medals – an elite resume that would make her an automatic pick for the Olympic team for most countries. But she couldn’t even make the Indian team in her preferred weight category after Minakshi dispatched her in Greater Noida this year during the women’s boxing nationals.
The intensity of the competition at this level comes from the hope that somehow, somewhere there will be an opportunity to take down Zareen. The two-time world champion continues to dominate at 51 domestically, although internationally, that dominance has not translated into an Olympic medal or a World Championship medal this year.
From left: Minakshi’s parents; Minakshi in action at the World Boxing Championships 2025, Liverpool (Special Arrangement and World Boxing)
With that hope in mind, Minakshi Hooda walked out for her semifinal bout against Mongolia’s Altantsetseg Lutsaikhan in a non-Olympic category weight class and right from the time the bell rang to the end of the third, conducted the entire nine-minute fight at a breakneck pace, and delivered an impressive beatdown.
A knockdown in the lowest women’s division tends to be a rare spectacle and the shot landing early in a fight can be decisive in a sport that has subjective judging. In as many as two days in two, an Indian has turned up defiant at the World Championships, eager to show that there is more to their continued winning than their Plan A.
A slow starter, and one who likes to land shots while moving backwards, the 48kg boxer reversed any plans the Mongolians could have come up with for her. Moving forwards with confidence, holding her ground and relying on a flurry of punches – Lutsaikhan may be a two-time Asian Championship bronze medallist, but was clearly taken aback by the way the fight started.
That confusion was compounded when Minakshi landed a knockdown that was set up perfectly. It started with the footwork – just a step too far forward, almost… and was then followed by a straight right to the temple that had the Mongolian dazed and on the carpet. She got up immediately, but the surprise of her range being breached that innocuously changed the fight.
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The Indian moved remarkably well. She darted in and out and showed faith in her fitness. Her flurries were not the most efficient, but enough would land to sway the judges to give her the first round.
Judges at these World Championships have rewarded boxers who managed their presence in the ring. A sustained pressure has often lent itself to better scorecards than landing scoring shots on the back foot. In that regard, the Indian’s strategy was soundly rewarded in the first, so much so that when she reverted to her way of boxing in the second and third, the five judges still gave her 10-9s all around.
The only possible criticism could have been that, considering a gold medal match against a titan in the division was coming up, Minakshi could have taken her foot off the pedal in the last round and coasted a little. Her fitness and the ability to push the same pace will be questioned again on Sunday when she faces Kyzaibay. Maintaining her energy levels could have been vital against a boxer who is technically far more accomplished than the Mongolian opponent that she faced today.
Kyzaibay has beaten Mary Kom in the past, lost to Nikhat Zareen in 2021 and will now face yet another Indian 48kg boxer on the up. A gold for Minakshi puts her in a special strata of Indian women who have won boxing gold medals at the World Championships outside of the country but crucially also signals the start of a new domestic battle to make the Indian Olympic team.
