Spiky and dyed golden at the front, Vijender Singh flaunts his latest hairstyle. “How is it?” he asks rhetorically, “cool, isn’t it?” Eight months after he last fought competitively, Vijender is ready to step into the ring again, and except for his new hairdo, everything about him seems reassuringly the same.

“I can’t wait for it to begin,” he says of the European Grand Prix boxing event in Czech Republic, getting underway on May 13. It will be his first assignment since the Olympics, where he won the bronze medal, and the 23-year-old from Bhiwani is feeling the weight of expectations — he says it’s spurring him on.

“The expectations are bound to be there. I haven’t fought since August, but people will want me to go there and perform. I know how to cope with it. It’s not for the first time I am returning to the ring after a hiatus. I’ve done it before and I’m confident of doing it again,” he says. “I am taking it as a preparation for the World Championship in Milan later this year. Besides, there have been a change in the rules in the boxing, it will be good to judge where I stand.”

‘No publicity is bad publicity’

The instant fame after the Beijing Games was followed by murmurs that he was not interested in the sport anymore. He hadn’t participated in any event, had put on weight, walked the ramp, talked about acting in films, and the buzz was that the accolades had gone to his head.

... contd.