In the early hours of Sunday, when most Indians were asleep, Jaismine Lamboria, just 24, was busy scripting history. She etched her name in the record books by becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal at the 2025 World Boxing Championship, being held in Liverpool.
The 24-year-old from Bhiwani, Haryana, punched past Paris Olympics silver medalist Julia Szeremeta of Poland with a 4-1 victory to become the world champion in the 57kg weight category. With this achievement, she joined an elite list of Indian women world champions. Jaismine is now the ninth Indian woman boxer to achieve this feat. Before her, Mary Kom (6 times), Nikhat Zareen (2), Sarita Devi, Neetu Ghanghas, Lekha KC, Jenny RL, Sweety Boora, and Lovlina Borgohain had all clinched world titles.
Jaismine comes from a family with a good history in combat sports. Her great-grandfather, Hawa Singh, was a heavyweight boxer and two-time Asian Games medalist. Her grandfather, Captain Chander Bhan Lamboriya, was a wrestler. Her father, Jaivir Lamboria, is a home guard (a contract-based job in the police), and her uncles with whom she trained – Sandeep Singh and Parvinder Singh – were also international-level boxers. She trained in the Bhiwani boxing club, the academy founded by Hawa Singh where boxers like Vijender Singh and Akhil Kumar had learned the ropes.
Her story resembles that of the Phogat sisters – having a supportive parent in tow, but not much women’s competition in town. In her initial days of training, she had to spar with male boxers for two years due to the dearth of female boxers at the academy. Even though she faced hard punches, she slowly started catching up. For Jaismine, it wasn’t an excuse but an opportunity to improve her skills by facing tougher competition.
“I had practiced with boys in my early days of training, and it genuinely helped me improve my game, especially in terms of speed and agility,” Jaismine told RevSportz at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (2022).
Her first big medal on the international stage came in 2021 at the Asian Championships, where she secured a bronze. The very next year, she clinched bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She was also part of the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics, but lost her opening bout.
The year 2025 has seen her resurgence on the world stage. She won gold at the World Boxing Cup in Astana and carried that sublime form to clinch gold at the World Championships in Liverpool.
Apart from Jaismine, India added two more medals in the non-Olympic weight categories. Nupur Sheoran clinched silver in the 80kg+ category, and Pooja Rani took bronze in the 80kg category.
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