Indian boxer Kaur Singh, who had once fought Muhammad Ali, passes away

Legendary Indian boxer Kaur Singh, who is the recipient of the Arjuna Award as well as the Padma Shri, has passed away at the age of 74.

Former heavyweight boxer Kaur Singh, who is a Padma Shri and Arjuna awardee besides being a former Olympian, breathed his last in a private hospital at Haryana’s Kurukshetra on Thursday morning. Singh was 74 years of age and he had been suffering from several health issues which required him to be hospitalized. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Singh had actually started off as a farmer in the Khanal Khurd village of Sangrur before he joined the Indian Army in 1971. He had even fought in the Indo-Pak war from the Barner sector of Rajasthan. Because of his gallantry efforts, he had been awarded the Sena Medal and Vishisht Sena Medal for his contributions to the war.

It was when he was in the Army that Singh started pursuing boxing and it was the beginning of his career in the sport. He made his debut at the senior national boxing championship in 1979 and he proved to be unstoppable and ended up winning a gold medal.

Singh continued to be ruthlessly good and even bagged the gold medal for four consecutive years until 1983. In 1980, he even won the gold at the Asian boxing championships held in Mumbai.

Singh went from being a boxing champion to a national hero when he won the gold medal for India in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. Thanks to his incredible achievement, the government of India decided to felicitate him with the Arjuna Award in 1982 and the Padma Shri in 1983.

He had also gone on to represent India in the 1984 Summer Olympics which was held in Los Angeles, USA.

Another interesting anecdote from his life is the fact that Singh had squared off in the ring with the late, great Muhammad Ali. The duo took part in a four-round exhibition match held in New Delhi in 1980 and Singh is the only Indian boxer who can claim to have faced Ali.

After representing India at the Olympics in 1983, Singh decided to hang up his gloves and retire from boxing in 1984. He decided to go back to his roots and begun working as a farmer once again.

A biopic on Kaur Singh was slated to be released in 2020 but was postponed to July 2022 for a limited release due to the pandemic. Actor Karam Bathh played the legendary boxer and the film depicted how the veteran boxer struggled to accept prize money from governments.