(September 17, 2025) Recently in Liverpool, the arena of the 2025 World Boxing Championships buzzed as a 24-year-old boxer from a village few could pinpoint on a map delivered a blistering counter. When the referee raised her arm, the celebration reached far beyond the ring. Back in Rurki, a farming hamlet outside Rohtak in Haryana, neighbours gathered to watch and their cheers spilled into the narrow lanes. Minakshi Hooda had just become a world boxing champion, and in doing so, brought a village that once believed girls belonged nowhere near a boxing ring into limelight.
A childhood of tight spaces and wider dreams
The youngest of four siblings, Minakshi was born in a household where every rupee was stretched. Her father ferried passengers in a rented auto-rickshaw and often returned home late. The idea of funding a sporting career seemed unthinkable. “I could barely afford the roof over our heads,” he recalled, still incredulous at how far they had come.
What Rurki lacked in infrastructure it made up for in stories of grit. Minakshi absorbed them quietly, watching older boys shadowbox on the dusty maidan, listening to the buzz when Vijender Singh won an Olympic medal. By the time she was 12, the spark had caught with the success of boxers Nikhat Zareen, Preeti Pawar and Lovlina Borgohain who hail from her region..
Support of the accidental coach
Her arrival at the local academy might never have happened without Vijay Hooda, a village accountant who answered an SOS call when the Shaheed Batun Singh Stadium was left without trainers. With no formal credentials, Vijay became a student of the sport: filling notebooks with sketches of counter-attacks, borrowing strategies from YouTube clips, and pestering national champions for tips.
“The villagers thought we were mad,” Vijay said with a laugh in a recent interview. In the beginning he disguised tournament trips as yoga camps so that parents of girls undergoing training in boxing give their consent. He bought gloves and pads from his own savings and hung a punching bag from a creaking beam. What he lacked in pedigree he replaced with obsession. Over time, the small hall in Rurki began to echo with the rhythm of footwork and the snap of hooks. The spirited sparring that once drew raised eyebrows now drew applause.
Minakshi with her coach Vijay Hooda
Rising through the ranks
Minakshi’s ascent was swift but never effortless. She captured the sub-junior national title in 2017 and the Khelo India crown a year later. In 2019 she became Youth National champion, then silver medallist at the 2021 senior nationals. Each step up the ladder meant longer training sessions and tougher travel, but also the thrill of testing herself against the best.
Her breakthrough came in 2022 at the Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Amman in Jordon, where she fought through the 52-kg division to claim silver. That performance secured her a post with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and a steady income that eased the family’s worries and allowed her to buy her father his own autorickshaw. The gesture was more than financial relief; it was her way of reversing years of sacrifice.
Minakshi kept sharpening her game. National titles in 2023 and 2024 followed, as did the prestigious Elorda Cup. Then came a tactical decision: dropping to the 48-kg class. In early 2025 she stunned reigning world champion Nitu Ghanghas at the national championships and added a World Boxing Cup bronze before heading to Liverpool.
The competition at Liverpool
In Liverpool, Minakshi carved a path through seasoned opponents with a style equal parts calculation and audacity. Her semifinal victory over Mongolia’s Lutsaikhany Altantsetseg was all about controlled aggression, a 5–0 sweep that electrified her supporters back home. The final against Olympic medalist Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan demanded every ounce of resolve. When the final bell rang and the judges announced a unanimous decision for the Indian underdog, Rurki erupted.
For coach Vijay, it was vindication of years spent convincing sceptical villagers that their daughters could fight and win on the world stage. “Minakshi has the willpower and passion,” he said simply, surrounded by trainees who now see global glory as attainable.
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Leading a cultural shift
Minakshi’s triumph is not merely personal. It signals a cultural shift in a region where daughters were once expected to box only with household duties. A decade ago, the idea of dozens of girls in gloves was inconceivable; today, more than 70 train at the Rurki academy, their ambitions fanned by her success. Families who once fretted about their daughters’ marriage prospects now crowd the sidelines with pride.
The ripple effects stretch beyond sport. Local authorities have promised upgrades to the stadium, and young women from neighbouring villages arrive daily, drawn by the story of a girl who turned a rented rickshaw into a passport to the world.
The revolution continues
Minakshi herself remains characteristically reserved in public, letting her footwork and fists speak. But her journey carries a message: talent thrives where belief takes root. It is the belief of a father who overcame his doubts, of a self-taught coach who sketched tactics by lamplight, and of a young woman who refused to be hemmed in by custom or circumstance.
The transformation of Rurki is still unfolding. The once-makeshift academy now stands as a proving ground where teenage girls exchange giggles for jabs, their laughter mixing with the smack of leather on pads. They train not merely to emulate Minakshi but to craft their own futures, whether inside the ring or beyond it.
Minakshi Hooda’s victory signals that her village’s boxing story is only beginning, joining India’s elite and inspiring other girls in the region to aim for national and international success.
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