When ex-World Champion Mary Kom asked 'who is Nikhat Zareen' amid Olympic selection saga

Nikhat Zarren created history by winning a gold medal at the 12th edition of the Woman's World Boxing Championship in Istanbul. Fighting in the 52kg final, the Nikhat Zareen vs Jutamas Jitpong ended in the Indian boxer's favour with the scorecard reading 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 29-28. Nikhat Zareen became the only fifth Indian woman to win a gold medal in the World Boxing Championships with previous winners being Mary Kom, Sarita Devi (2006), Jenny RL (2006) and Lekha KC (2006). However couple of years back both Mary Kom and Nikhat Zareen were engaged in a war of words over the Olympic selection trial.

Mary Kom vs Nikhat Zareen controversy

Back in 2019 before the World Boxing Championship controversy erupted Nikhat Zareen alleged a selection bias in the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) choice for the Olympics. Back then Mary Kom was selected without any trials in the 51-kg category to represent India at the Women's World Boxing Championships with Nikhat hoping to challenge Mary Kom in the 51-kg trials. 

With the trial denied Nikhat went on to write a letter to the federation as well as Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju asking them to hold a trial. Meanwhile, Mary Kom won the Bronze medal at the world championship. After Mary Kom's victory at World Championship, the federation then chose to go ahead with Kom for the Olympic qualifiers in February 2020, instead of sticking with their policy of choosing just the gold and the silver medallists from the Worlds.

When it looked like the door was about to shut on Zareen, the boxer wrote another letter to then sports minister Kiran Rijiju, demanding a trial and a “fair chance”. However, Rijiju decided against interfering in the matter. The BFI eventually decided to conduct trials for each weight category to decide who would go to the Olympic qualifiers. 

When Mary Kom was asked about the whole fiasco the legendary boxer in an interview with Republic TV had said, “Who is Nikhat Zareen, I don’t know her.” Finally, after months of drama, Nikhat Zareen was given a chance to fight Mary Kom for a spot in the Indian team for Tokyo Olympics.  The much-anticipated showdown was a largely one-sided affair, with Kom defeating Zareen in a split-verdict trial.

Women's World Boxing Championships: Nikhat Zareen wins gold

Nikhat Zareen came into the final bout having defeated Kazakhstan's Zhaina Shekerbekova, a three-time World Championship medalist. The 25-year-old Indian used her long reach to retain her domination over the Thai fighter, whom she had defeated in the 2019 Thailand Open semi-final, their sole meeting. Jutamas tried to fight back in the second round with a counter-attacking display but hardly managed to cause any trouble as Nikhat looked to be in complete control of the match. The Indian boxer kept attacking her opponent relentlessly before securing the gold quite comfortably.