He managed to impress none other than Manny Pacquiao en
route to becoming only the third Indian pugilist ever to clinch a World
Championships medal and the fast-rising Shiva Thapa is now eyeing a
stint in the World Series of Boxing to qualify for next year’s Olympics.
The 21-year-old bantamweight (56kg) boxer, who joined Vijender Singh
(2009) and Vikas Krishan (2011) as a rare World Championships medallist
with his bronze in Doha, could not clinch an Olympic quota berth after
losing in the box-off to Belarus’ Dzmitry Asanau.
Back with a new-found self-belief, Shiva said the job is only half done as he still has to book a ticket to Rio de Janeiro.
“I am certainly more confident about myself after the World
Championships. There is a self-belief that I can stand up to any guy
whether it’s a Kazakh, whether it’s an Uzbek.
The
draw, which can cause a few butterflies in the stomach sometimes, I
don’t think it matters anymore,” Shiva told PTI in an interview after
returning to the country in the wee hours this morning.
“I will give WSB a shot because there is a chance to qualify for
Olympics from there. So that is definitely on my mind and should work
out by November. If it doesn’t, then the Asian Olympic qualifiers are
also there in March,” said Shiva, who was part of the USA WSB franchise
last year.
In his previous stint in the WSB, the
results were not that great for the boxer but his style caught the
attention of Iron Mike Productions, a boxing promotions company co-owned
by Mike Tyson.
And at Doha, he was noticed by
Pacquiao after a brilliant knockout win in the pre-quarters. Pacquiao
was a special guest at the event and was in Doha for a whirlwind
day-long trip.
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