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.
