Happy with my performance against Jose Zepeda despite loss, Americans realise we are on a different level: India professional boxer Neeraj Goyat

Ottawa [Canada], April 6 : Indian professional boxer Neeraj Goyat expressed happiness with his performance in the bout against Jose Zepeda, saying that despite a loss, his performance helped him win the hearts of people in Mexico and made them realise the true level of Indian pro boxers.

In an exclusive interview with this week, Neeraj talked about his bout with Zepeda, his training for the fight, his legacy as a professional boxer and his role models while getting into professional boxing.

"Jose was a Southpaw boxer when I studied him. He had won most of his fights via knockouts. I had very less time on my hands for the training because they were late at sending me the contract. I went to Army Sports Institute Pune for training for 10-12 days. I should have trained for four weeks at least but I had less time in my hands. I reached Mexico at the last moment. The fight was amazing, I am happy with my performance," said Neeraj to .

"Julio Cesar Chavez, a four or five-time world champion back in his playing days was at the commentary and he praised me a lot. People sent me the recording of his commentary. I lost but won over people there. Indian professional boxers perception has changed among people in North and South America. They have realised that we are on another level," added Neeraj.

Neeraj said that at the end of his professional boxing career, he wants to leave behind his legacy as someone who always fought tough fights.

"I want to be known as someone who took part in tough fights. I fought the world champions from China and Mexico in their home country and defeated them. I want to leave a good impact so that the upcoming generation of boxers get great fights, great money since there is very little awareness in India about the right fight-purse. I want to promote and give a great platform to upcoming boxers, where they get good fights and money," said the boxer.

The 3 times WBC Asia title winner, Neeraj Goyat turned professional in 2013 and since then has fought 22 bouts and has won 17 out of them. He is the first Indian boxer to have made it to the WBC world rankings and has won the 'Honorary Boxer of the Year' by WBC Asia in 2017.

On disadvantages that come with switching to professional boxing after amateur boxing, Neeraj said that the base of professional boxing is amateur and advised that youth with the good amateur record should venture into professional boxing.

Talking about his role models growing up, Neeraj recalled watching fights of Mike Tyson and being aware of Dharmendra Yadav and Rajkumar Sangwan, who is among the first professional boxers in the country.

"I used to search for contacts in professional boxing. Amateur boxing is considered zero and everyone asks about your professional record. If we have a good record in both, then it is good to get great professional fights. But back then a few years back, it was difficult and took a lot of convincing to get promoters and orgsers to give us some great fights. But now, India has some good promotions as well. I and Vikas Krishna Yadav are also running our promotion, VN Promotions, through which we want to give great fights with great money abroad to bright boxers," added Neeraj.

On whether he will remain a promoter or take up coaching after retirement from professional boxing, Neeraj said, "I cannot be a coach. Coaching needs one to give time to his students. I would not be able to give them a lot of time. It would be a sin to call myself a coach. I am also looking for acting roles. The promoter role would be better for me," concluded the boxer.