Ashish Kumar

Ashish Kumar is an Indian amateur boxer born on 18th July 1994. He hails from Dhahotu village of Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh. He represents India in the Middleweight category in international competitions.

Ashish Kumar - Early Life, Family & Background

Ashish Kumar comes from a family of boxers. Kumar’s father was a national-level Kabaddi player and a farmer. His father passed away in February 2020 due to health-related issues.

Ashish made a foray into boxing after he was inspired by his three elder brothers and cousin pursuing the sport. His cousin is a national boxing champion. Kumar wanted to make a career in sports, but he had to choose between wrestling and boxing, so he picked the latter.

Ashish took up boxing at the age of 14 and started training at the Sundarnagar Boxing Academy. At the age of 16, he had shifted to Bhiwani, a hometown of Olympic Bronze medalist Vijendra Singh, to focus on his training seriously.

At one point, Ashish decided to give up on his boxing dreams and join the Police or Army because of a slew of poor performances and inconsistencies. Later, he continued to pursue the sport after he did well in some tournaments. Ashish’s father was very supportive of his son’s boxing ambitions and he had motivated him to push further in his sporting career.

Ashish Kumar Biography

Ashish Kumar’s career began to take off from the nascent stage. In 2009, he won the first Gold medal of his boxing career at the junior state competition. Kumar won a Bronze medal at the School Nationals and later participated in Youth Nationals in 2012. In that same year, he began to participate in Senior Nationals.

In 2015, At the 35th National Games, Ashish grabbed his first senior national Gold medal held in Kerala. In 2018, he won two Bronze medals, each at the Boxing Nationals and Asian Games Test event. In the same year, Ashish competed in his debut international event at the India Open International Boxing and reached the quarterfinals. Later, he competed in the President’s Cup.

In 2019, he participated in the International Boxing Tournament in Stranja, Bulgaria. Later that year, he won his first international Gold medal in the Middleweight category while representing India at the Thailand Open. This achievement booked him a berth at the 2019 World Boxing Championships.

Ashish Kumar Achievements

Ashish Kumar made his Asian Boxing Championships debut in 2019 and won a Silver in the 75kg Middleweight category held in Bangkok, Thailand. In that same year, Ashish also made his World Boxing Championships debut but was knocked out of the tournament after losing to Tuohetaerbieke Tanglatihan of China in the 75kg Middleweight category held in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

In 2020, Ashish qualified for his debut Olympics at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after he reached the semi-finals of the 2020 Asia and Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Amman, Jordan.