Vijender knocks out Soldra, braces up for Asia title at home

Facing the first eight-round fight of his fledging professional career, Vijender outpunched his opponent right from the start, forcing the referee to stop the contest around two minutes into the third round. 

The Bhiwani lad will now contest for the World Boxing Organisation’s (WBO) Asia title in front of his home crowd in New Delhi on June 11.

Soldra is the most experienced opponent Vijender has run into so far with 12 wins out of the 17 bouts he has fought so far. Five of those wins have come by knockout. 

Soldra looked to be better than Vijender’s five earlier opponents and tried to put up a strong fight in the first two rounds. But the Indian’s punching power eventually proved too much for him as Vijender dished out a virtually one-sided hammering in the third round. Walking into the ring to famous Bollywood song “Singhh is King”, Vijender was off to an explosive start, dominating the first round. The Haryanvi boxer knocked his opponent to the canvas with a powerful right jab on the counter when Soldra tried to go on the offensive. 

The Indian repeatedly forced the Polish pugilist to the ropes with power packed blows. The Polish boxer was visibly struggling to absorb the blows, but managed to fight on. 

Vijender went in for the kill in third round, forcing the worn out Soldra to the ropes repeatedly with crisp punches and body blows. The brutal barrage of punches forced the referee to step in and inspect Soldra’s condition before stopping the fight. 

“I am thrilled to get my sixth professional victory and excited for my homecoming title fight. Soldra was a good opponent but my punches replied to him. I think this fight was a horror show for him.,” Vijender said.