Zulpikar training 10 hours-a-day to knock-out Vijender Singh

WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight champion Vijender Singh is all set to face WBO Oriental Super Middleweight Champion and Chinese number 1 boxer Zulpikar Maimaitiali for a double title fight on August 5 at NSCI, Mumbai.

Battleground Asia is nearly two weeks away and both the boxers are giving in their 100 percent to be declared as the ultimate ' King of Asia'.

Our Indian boxing sensation continues to train harder every day with his trainer Lee Beard and changing his ways to face the Southpaw boxer in the ring, Zulpikar Maimaitiali on the other hand is training for 10 hours a day to match up to Vijender Singh.

He says, "I take every bout seriously and try to push myself to the limit every time. Vijender will be one of the rivals that I beat, I know his traits and I am preparing accordingly, I am putting in 10 hours every day into training to make sure Vijender is knocked out in the first 2-3 rounds itself. On 5th August Vijender will actually face the toughest opponent in his pro boxing career".

Zulpikar feels that the training he is undergoing should not be revealed to everyone, he believes in surprising his opponent, "My team has watched all his bouts. At this phase, maybe only myself and my coach should understand the training schedule that have been implemented. Vijender will be surprised when I throw punches at him, he thinks I am a kid, but he has no idea who I am".

This will be Vijender's third fight in the country and like before this time too he is expecting the country to come out in complete support for him, however Zulpikar does not seem to be troubled by this, "Fighting abroad is not fresh to me and I respect the audiences, hoping they will like our fight. I hope they won't feel bad when their favourite boxer is getting beaten up by me."

Vijender holds a record of seven knock out wins since his pro-boxing debut, Zulpikar having the same record of bouts has less knock out wins, but he is confident that this would be Vijender's first loss.

"Both of us have no loss record since pro debut, both of us have high ratio of KO. As I said, the pressure should be on his side, as it will be too old for him to suffer and recover from a loss, what will be worse is losing from someone as young as me. He is considered the king of boxing in India, so he has started feeling like a king, its time I get him down onto the ground."

-ANI