IOS Boxing Promotions today announced its complete fight card for the much-awaited fight night ‘Battleground Asia’ scheduled to happen at Dome@NSCI, SVP Stadium in Mumbai on 5th August 2017.

The knockout king Vijender Singh headlines a quality packed card that also features debut of Beijing Olympic quarterfinalists Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar. In the double title fight, Indian boxing sensation Vijender Singh will take on Chinese No.1 boxer Zulpikar Maimaitiali and both will compete for double title – WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight & WBO Oriental Super Middleweight. The other two key boxers Akhil Kumar (Junior Welterweight – 63.5 Kg) will take on Australian TY Gilchrist and Jitender Kumar (Lightweight – 61.2 Kgs) will face Thanet Likhitkamporn from Thailand in their debut fights.

‘Battleground Asia’ will also see participation from other boxers apart from the Beijing Olympic trio, WBC Asia Welterweight Champion Neeraj Goyat who will be looking to defend his title belt, the other joining the fight card are Pardeep Kharera, Dharmender Grewal and Kuldeep Dhanda.

The 26-year-old boxer from Haryana, Neeraj Goyat made his professional debut in 2011 against Gou Wen Dong in China. He has fought 12 bouts with an experience of 71 rounds under his belt and claimed 8 wins, with 2 Knockouts. The Indian is currently placed 35th in the WBC list which was updated after his victory over Australian Ben Kite, who he defeated to retain his title. In 2016, he had won bronze medal in the AIBA Pro Boxing Olympic qualifier.

WBC Asia Welterweight Champion Neeraj Goyat will be looking to defend his title in a 10-round fight against Allan Tanada of Philippines in the Welterweight category (66.7 Kgs). Neeraj will be facing a much-experienced boxer, Tanada who made his debut in the year 2008 and has played 24 bouts since then with winning 15 of them including 7 KO’s, and has 137 rounds under his belt.

An enthusiastic Neeraj Goyat spoke on defending his title belt, “I have worked very hard for this belt and this belt means a lot to me. I am not going to let anyone take it from me. I am putting in a lot of labour and muscles to make sure that the belt remains with me on 5th August 2017. Yes, my opponent is more experienced but that does not mean I will let go of my belt that easy, I will give him a tough fight.”

The 21- year old Pardeep Kharera comes from a small district in Haryana. Pardeep turned pro last year in February, till date he has 3 bouts with 11 rounds under his belt. Pardeep, will face Wanphichit Siriphana of Thailand who debuted in the year 2014 and has fought 3 bouts since then. Siriphana has played 15 rounds, he has won 2 bouts out of the 3 that he has been a part of. Pardeep will face him in a 6-round contest in Welterweight category (66.7 Kgs).

Dharmender Grewal turned towards professional boxing in April last year and has fought and won 2 bouts since his debut, with one resulting in a Knockout win. He will face Isaac Slade of Australia in a 6-round contest, in the Cruiserweight category (90.7 Kgs). Isaac debuted in the year 2015 and has been a part of 3 fights with 15 rounds. However, he has won only 1 bout with KO, the other two resulting in loss and draw respectively.

Haryana boy Kuldeep Dhanda, 27, who turned professional in April last year in the light weight category made a good start in his career winning 3 out of 3 bouts. In this fight night, he will face Sachin Bhot in a 4 round contest in the Lightweight (61.2 Kgs) category. Sachin has previously played two bouts with one resulting in his favour the other against him

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June 2017, New Delhi: Talks have taken a positive turn between SECA Worldwide, promoters of Chinese No.1 boxer and WBO Oriental Super middleweight champion Zulpikar Maimaitiali and IOS Boxing Promotions, promoter of WBO Asia Pacific Super middleweight champion Vijender Singh for the biggest showdown in Asia.

The battle between two of the biggest pro fighters of India and China will decide the King of Asia. This will be a double title fight, where in both the boxers will put their respective titles at stake whoever defends his title, goes home with his defended title and the opponents title.

The promoters of the respective boxers were in talks earlier this year as well, but due to unavoidable circumstances the bout did not take place. However, now that the promoters are back in talks, boxing fans have a lot to rejoice, since this is going to be a high magnitude clash of both the boxers who are unbeaten till date. The battlefield decided for this clash is the glittering city of Mumbai, and the bout is likely to take place in the beginning of August.

Speaking on a possible bout Edmund Chu, MD, SECA Worldwide said, “Zulpikar is training and preparing to fight Vijender Singh in the biggest showdown of the year. Due to certain unavoidable circumstances, the bout had to be postponed, but we have been in talks with IOS Boxing Promotions for over a month now to work out the modalities and are hopeful for the bout to take place soon. Zuli is ready to enter the ring in India and put on a performance against Indian star Vijender Singh in front of his home crowd to become Asian King of Boxing”.

The 22-year-old undefeated Chinese star boxer Zulpikar Maimaitiali, currently holds the WBO Oriental Super Middleweight Champion Title. He has fought 8 bouts with 24 rounds under his belt. Zulpikar has won 7 bouts with no less than 5 KO wins and one draw. The Chinese boxer debuted in the year 2015, and won the WBO Oriental Title last year in July. Now, he would be fighting to defend his recently acquired title against Indian boxing sensation Vijender Singh.

Vijender Singh, who recently retained his WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title debuted in the year 2015. Vijender has 8 wins under his belt with 7 of them being won by KO and 1 by Unanimous Decision. He has played 30 rounds, which puts him a few rounds above his next opponent. Vijender Singh won his maiden title last year in July after defeating Kerry Hope of Australia. Later in the month of December the golden boy of Indian boxing was challenged by Francis Cheka of Tanzania for his title, which was gracefully retained by Vijender Singh. This will be his biggest test till date against a much younger Chinese fighter.

Commenting on Singh’s next fight, Promoter, IOS Boxing Promotions, Mr. Neerav Tomar, said, “We started talks with SECA in December 2016 but finally after several rounds of discussions, Zulpikar looks all set to take on Vijender Singh in the biggest battle of Asia wherein two top boxers of India and China will compete for double title. I am sure this fight will be the first of its kind high voltage clash in the Asian Sub continent. The biggest fight of Asia will decide King of Asia involving more than 3 billion people. We will apply to WBO to sanction the title once we lock the terms with SECA. As soon as our fight is sanctioned we will announce the date and venue of the fight night. We will try to make this fight happen in August 2017”.