Coach Beard confident of Vijender's victory

With nearly a week to go for Vijender Singh's maiden WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight Championship title bout, his trainer Lee Beard is confident of a knockout win against WBC Asian Boxing Council middleweight champion Kerry Hope of Australia.

According to Beard, Vijender is increasing the intensity of his training day by day as the date of the bout draws near.

"He is training very hard, he has been sparring 12 rounds with three different guys and also putting the strength and condition to work hard also," Beard said in a statement on Thursday.

Beard is also changing Vijender's training accordingly to match his southpaw opponent.

"We have of course been adjusting things to suit the southpaw opponent he is fighting in Kerry Hope, a very experienced operator and a fighter who has been involved in some big fights so him fighting Vijender in India won't faze him," he said.

"We have been working on various things which I believe will be effective against Hope, Vijender is very strong and punches extremely hard but we are not going to rely on that."

Beard also asserted that he has been training with Vijender on a number of things to prepare him for the fight.

"As I mentioned without giving anything away we have been working on a number of things technically and I believe Vijender will knock out his opponent," he remarked.

Commenting on Vijender's opponent, Beard said, "Hope is a very experienced boxer but Vijender is very confident and self-assured. Vijender is going display how smart he is as a fighter and then the power Vijender has will also come out and he will win in style."

--IANS

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