Vikas laments underestimating opponent, says 'overconfidence cost me'

'When I got to know that Melikuziev is just 19 I thought I would kill him and that made me overconfident'

His was the best performance by an Indian boxer, but Vikas Krishan is hardly satisfied with the silver medal he won at the recent Asian Boxing Championships in Thailand.

The pugilist from Bhiwani district in Haryana lost to 19-year-old Youth Olympic champion Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan in a brutal summit clash on Saturday.

He feels he would surely have won gold if not for "overconfidence".

"I was not there for the silver, I wanted a gold. No doubt it was the toughest bout of my career but I should have won it. When I got to know that Melikuziev is just 19 I thought I would kill him and that made me overconfident," said Vikas during an interaction with the media in Delhi on Monday.

"I was overconfident about the result. I thought he is nothing. But I forgot that at 19 I was the Asian Games gold medallist too, so I should have known that he could also be dangerous. Actually, I don't even know how I managed to lose," he added.

Asked about the lessons he learnt from the event in Bangkok, prompt came the reply: "I learnt never to be overconfident at any point."

The Asian Championships was also the qualifying event for next month's World Championships -- the first qualifier for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Six Indians -- Vikas (75kg), bronze-winners L Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) and quarter-finalists Madan Lal (52kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) -- qualified for the Worlds.

"Because of my sponsors, Jindal Steel Works (JSW) Limited, I could go to US and UK before the Championship for training and that helped me be fully prepared for the Asian meet. Hopefully I would again be headed abroad before the World Championships, may be Kazakhstan," said the 23-year-old Vikas, who was beaten 0-2 in the final.

"In my weight category, the main competition in the Worlds is going to come from Cuba, Russia and Kazakhstan. Besides I have to work on increasing my weight as well," he said.

The Haryana-lad, who won a bronze at the 2011 World Championships -- only the second Indian to fetch a medal at the mega event -- said he is confident of qualifying for the Olympics from the Doha extravaganza.

"I will qualify in the World Championship itself, this very year. It's not going to happen later," he said.

Elaborating on his ring strategy, Vikas said he will continue to go all out in the first two rounds and take evasive action in the final three minutes.

"I would not change that. I would try to win the first two rounds, I don't like to think about the final round. I prefer to win it in the first two rounds."

India returned from the championships with Krishnan’s silver and bronze medals from L Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg).