How Jaismine Lamboriya added power and bite to her punches to become World Champion: Sparring with men, extra strength sessions

It’s easy to say that a talented boxer pulled together a wild arc from the Round of 32 at Paris, to a gold medal at Liverpool. But the additions to her game, on the insistence of coaches back home, who recognised her strengths and made sure they would translate to a fortnight of matured control in the ring, won Jaismine a memorable Worlds gold medal outside of India.

There was no truer test of how far Jaismine’s newfound ring pressure could last than a nine-minute bout against Szeremeta. The Polish boxer walks her opponents down, is true to her defensive sideways movements and top-level head feints. Add to that her limited volume, high efficiency offense and the makings of why she’s an Olympic medallist start to become clear.

India’s Jaismine Lamboriya after winning the boxing World Championship in Liverpool. (Photo: World Boxing)

But across all three rounds on late Saturday night, Jaismine met that unstoppable force by being an immovable object. She challenged for that space in the centre of the ring and was brave in her determination to not cede that territory. Szeremeta needed to bring volume into the fight and add more to the equation. But that was a risk considering the pop that the Indian’s lead jab provides every time it met its mark.

That sustained pressure, as well as the strong shots that have made her opponents wary at these World Championships, have been in the works since 2022 but were ramped up over the last year at the National Centre of Excellence in Rohtak, as well as the national camp under D Chandralal.

Immediate return from Paris

Less than a week after Jasmine Lamboriya was unceremoniously dumped out of the Paris Olympics, she walked in one morning to the National Centre of Excellence at Rohtak. Coaches were surprised to see her – most would take a long-deserved break and try to recover from the emotional and mental toll of not medalling at the quadrennial event.

Different Indian boxers had taken different paths. Nikhat Zareen chose to go to Kashmir and then get a dog. Lovlina Borgohain opened an academy in her hometown – a dream of hers for years. Jaismine though, chose to immediately get back to the grind and start working on what she felt was the reason for her ouster.

That Jaismine was wanted in the national team and at its camp was not under any debate. The Bhiwani boxer started out in the 57kg weight class, was moved up to 60kg and when Parveen Hooda was banned on the back of a whereabouts suspension months before the Olympics, Jaismine returned to her category emphatically, re-winning India’s quota in the 57kg category. Even then the consensus was that the potential she carried was one that coaches felt would come good – they just didn’t know where or when.

After Paris, the path for her became far clearer than it ever had been. A tall boxer with long arms for her category, Jaismine could well outpoint her opponents. But the power needed to keep other boxers wary, just wasn’t there. Her footwork too, needed a rejig – despite coming from a family of boxers, Jaismine only donned the gloves at 14 – and knew how to backpedal but not much more.

It was a shakeup that was long in the making and still continues. But the effects of her training are starting to show.

“When she came back from Paris, she knew exactly what had gone wrong. She told us that she wanted to become a stronger boxer and wanted her punches to carry some bite,” says Chhote Lal Yadav, who was MC Mary Kom’s coach, and has been working with Jaismine from 2022 at the NCOE. “She has the same mental fortitude as Mary. If she knows that there is an area of improvement to be worked on, she gets it done. Even if she’s doing well in her bouts.”

Now with a gold, Jaismine carries a similar target on her back that boxers like Nikhat and Lovlina have had to deal with for years. (Photo: World Boxing)

One of the first things that changed were Jaismine’s training sessions. Three sessions a day and only one dedicated to boxing followed. Mornings would be spent working on her strength, afternoons on cardio and evenings dedicated to sparring.

“I would bring boxers from the Army Sports Institute to box with her and my aim was to always bring people who could surprise her. Sometimes I would choose a smaller, faster boxer and sometimes I’d ask a men’s boxer from a higher weight class to come in. Giving her different types of boxers in sparring was key,” said Chhote Lal.

That focus on her strength was also taken forwards at the national camp, by the Indian coaching team led by D Chandralal, a Dronacharya awardee. But he also wanted her to work on her pressure and particularly being the first to land a punch when engaged against an opponent.

“We know her counter-punching game is elite but we wanted her to land the first punch in an engagement. And we wanted the volume of attacks to increase. There’s no doubt that she has shown improvements in these areas but more work on her strength needs to be done after we return home,” said Chandralal.

Now with a gold, Jaismine carries a similar target on her back that boxers like Nikhat and Lovlina have had to deal with for years. But if there’s one aspect of Jaismine that holds her in good stead, it’s her ability to recognise shortcomings no matter the results, and attack it with the same finesse as she won her maiden World Championships gold medal with.

(With inputs from Nitin Sharma)