Chungneijang Mary Kom Hmangte better known as Mary Kom from Manipur is the only woman to become a World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times. If that wasn’t amazing enough, Goa recently found out that she’s also a pretty amazing singer. While attending the recently concluded GoaFest 2019 at Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, she wowed the audience with by singing her rendition of ‘What’s Up’, a 90’s 4 Non Blondes classic.
The long walk
Apart from enthralling the audience with her singing chops, the boxer who is the only woman to have won a medal in each one of the seven world championships shared her story of how she beat the odds to become the biggest name in women’s boxing. “During my early days of boxing, I had to struggle a lot. I walked miles to practice. Coming from the north-eastern part of the country, where facilities are almost nil, I faced many problems. My family at that time did not support me and so I kept my dream of becoming a boxer confined to myself,” Mary said.
“When I started, boxing was not given much hype in the country, forget about the international scene. As a player, I have survived a lot of difficulties and struggles. As a state and national-level player, I used to travel in sleeper class with no other facilities. But that’s okay. We all evolve from our hardships and by our hard work.”
Behind every successful woman
Life outside the ring has its own hardships. Kom took a moment to speak about her personal life and life with her kids. She shared an emotional incident about how her husband supported her saying, “There’s always a woman behind a successful man”. She went on to say, “My husband has been there with me through thick and thin. It was during one of the championships that I got to know my son wasn’t keeping well. I decided to give up to start taking care of my son because at that moment I thought as a mother who was on the verge of emotional trauma. My husband always stood beside me and pushed me to pursue my dreams. And he always took care of my kids.” Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room at GoaFest.
The pride of the nation
Mary ended her session by talking about how she was going to prepare for the Japan Championship 2020. She said, “These are my crucial years as we have a selection period in October and November. I have to make the most of my time in practising and knocking out the rival team. My only aim was to bring pride to our nation and I’ll keep doing it.” Before waving goodbye to everyone at GoaFest though, she decided to deliver one final blow – a knockout with a Mary Kom (singing) twist. Check out her take on ‘What’s Up’ below.
What’s going on? Listen to this lady sing.. She may seem unfamiliar cos she’s ungloved! Hint! She packs a mean punch! pic.twitter.com/IleBeOVj5i
— Raghu Raman (@captraman) April 13, 2019
