A puncher’s chance
View(s):With the 89th Boxing National Championships culminating in a series of spectacular bouts, David Stephens catches up with some of the competition’s exciting fighters
As a quiet evening carefully picks its way toward the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, the facility’s boxing ring echoes with the beat of staccato dull thuds, as leather gloves collide emphatically with strong jaws and dancing bodies. The occasion is Sri Lanka’s Boxing National Championships, and some of the country’s top punchers across multiple weight classes line the outer border of the arena, waiting for their moment to step into the swirl of vicious and swift blows.
Army SC, who won the overall championship of the 89th Boxing Nationals, has helped fighters like Ishan Ranjeewa to blossom. - Pix by Hasitha Kulasekara
Ishan Ranjeewa has just finished dispatching his opponent. Visibly both spent and satisfied, the third-year boxer from the Army reclines against a wall in one of the warm-up rooms and exchanges smiles and war tales with his teammates.
“You have to be fearless,” he responds simply when asked about how any man can willingly subject himself to the three rounds of torture he has just endured.
A few yards away from him, his fellow soldier R. Dharmasena is furiously leaning into the mitts with some rapid combinations. The room explodes with the amplified cracks of his strikes and deep, measured breathing.
Dharmasena (23) has been training brutally for two months for this moment, putting in close to four hours of bag work, running and sparring each day to stay within the skill and size margins of his Fly Weight class. Staying motivated and disciplined is not that difficult for him anymore though, especially since seeing what local boxers are capable of.
“I look at Manjula Wanniarachchi and Anuraddha Rathnayake, and I want to be as successful as they were. And I want to get their fast, be the best in my division by 2015,” he explains.
Anusha Kodituwakku
Anusha Kodituwakku, the most recognizable face in women’s boxing, has enjoyed much of the success Dharmasena dreams of. Locally, sporting the MAS Slimline Boxing Club badge, she has ruthlessly dismantled anyone insensible enough to take guard against her in the ring. Internationally, she is arguably unrivalled in her contribution to the sport, winning 12 medals across the world in a decade-long career.
“I have been training for the past month in the Philippines. I want to do well here so I can earn a place at the Commonwealth Games,” she asserts.
She states that the women’s branch of the sport is daily growing in size and girth and this is demonstrated by the fact that nowadays she often spars with women, while in the past she had to pit her skills and striking power against men.
Although Anusha admits it is tough for any woman to willfully expose her looks to the repetitive beating inherent in boxing, she says this has never really been a problem for her.
“Normally I don’t get hit on the face. I like my face,” she proclaims, before supporting her statement with a wide, Hollywood siren grin.
Former Olympian Anuruddha Rathnayake is equally elusive in the ring. Not so surprising, given his involvement in Anusha’s training.
Over the years, Anuruddha has jabbed, uppercut, hooked and weaved in the mouth of a cannon which could at any time have boomed
Anuruddha Rathnayake
and left him splayed on the canvas. Instead he has emerged with one of Sri Lankan boxing’s most extended and illustrious careers. He became a medal hopeful and a poster child for the sport locally in the days leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately Anuruddha was not able to deliver on this promise but this did not stop him from continuing with the sport at the top level. After a brief coaching stint and a regulation change whereby the retirement age of fighters was extended to 40, Anuruddha, now 38, is not just back where he belongs, he is doing what he does best: winning.
For the wily vet though the latter fact is a bittersweet pill to swallow.
“When I joined Slimline there were five boxers, now there are 100. How am I still winning when there are so many good, young boxers around? Are they not talented enough?” he asks. “No. They are. But they need to be focused and approach the sport with the right morale.”
Anuruddha explains that boxing is as much about the activity between your ears as it is about any physical exertion. It is the perfect coordination of mind and body, an unforgiving chess game, where you have to outmaneuver, outthink and anticipate you opponent’s every move. But most of all it is an exercise in passion.
Driving a finger deep into his chest he states loudly, ”It is in my heart. I love boxing.” As a volley of punches erupts in the ring nearby followed by a wave of applause, it is clear that in this building, Anuruddha is not the only pugilist to feel this way about the sweet science.