Celebrated Indian woman boxer L Sarita Devi comfortably outpunched Zsofia Bedo of Hungary to make a winning start to her professional career in the IBC Fight Night at the at the Khuman Lampak Stadium, in Imphal on Sunday.
Zofia Bedo had challenged to reduce Sarita to tears but it was Sarita who settled the scores in the ring in front of roaring home fans.
The Iron Lady of Indian boxing, Sarita won the bout by unanimous verdict.
"The Asian Games incident was very painful. I had to erase those sad memories. That was one big factor I decided to turn pro. For any mother to stay away and not to feed her child is the biggest sacrifice. I made that sacrifice for this day," said Sarita, while hugging her three-year-old son in the ring.
Zsofia and Sarita have been engaged in verbal spats since the announcement of this bout. The Hungarian had said that she would reduce Sarita to tears yet again.
But the Hungarian was forced to clinch Sarita time and again to escape the flurry of hooks and punches. Zsofia had an experience of 59 pro bouts behind her, but debutante Sarita was a better boxer from the word go, flooring Zofia in round two.
So hurt was Sarita by Zsofia's challenges and verbal punches that she decided to stay away from her three-year-old son even as she had returned to her hometown after four weeks of rigorous training.
Having established a winning edge after three rounds, Sarita was determined to silence her rivals for once and ever.
The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Silver medallist, Sarita proved her overall superiority and made it clear that she is here to stay in the professional world.
Earlier, Pinki Jangra justified the giant killer tag in her first ever professional bout. The 26-year-old Haryana girl beat Claudia Ferenczi of Slovakia in the IBC Fight Night.
Pinki won the bout 40-36, 40-36, 40-36 by unanimous verdict on the score sheets of all judges.
Veteran Som Bahadur Poon knocked out his light heavy weight opponent Manop Siththiem of Thailand in mere four-and-half minutes to start his professional career.
In the Super Welter Weight IBC National Champion title bout, four-time champion Siddharth Verma successfully defended his crown with a technical knock out against fellow countryman Jaganathan.
The contest was stopped after Janganathan ruptured his thigh muscle. He wanted to continue despite injury, but he was not allowed to continue after doctor's advise.
Sidharth retained the belt to extended his professional record to 5-0 wins.
Pinki, who had trained hard under the US coach Joe Clough for her pro debut, was all at ease as against the 77-pro bout experienced Claudia. Pinki scored a 10-9, 10-9, 10-9 verdict gainst Claudia in round one and maintained the same in all four rounds.
Both the boxers showed great wisdom and adopted a defensive approach, looking for openings to score points. Pinki maintained her edge, lending clean punches.
But the other Indian debutant Vipin Kumar was knocked out by Mubarak Sseguya of Uganda in the third round of the first bout of the fight night.
Image: L Sarita Devi
Photograph: PTI/File