On her senior international debut, the 20-year-old who once struggled to win a district title beat a former world champion en route to the final of the women’s 60kg category in the Continental Championships.

It’s not easy for ambitious young boxers to get admitted to the Boxing Academy at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bhiwani. The academy—where Olympians including Akhil Kumar, Vijender Kumar, Manish Kaushik, Raj Kumar Sangwan, and Vikas Krishan Yadav have trained—has a reputation for excellence.

So, in 2023, when Mahendra Ghanghas took his daughter Priya to the said academy, he tried to hype her up. Although she had been training for a few years at that point, she had little to show for it. She hadn’t even won a title at the district level. Nevertheless, Mahendra tried to convince the coaches there that she was a talent waiting to be discovered.

“He was telling me that Priya was really talented. When I first saw her, I wasn’t so sure. She didn’t have any real results. And which parent doesn’t think their child isn’t special?” recalls Mahavir Singh, a two-decade-long veteran with the Indian national team.

He eventually took the 16-year-old under his wings anyway.

Few doubt just how special Priya is now.

From left to right: Neeraj Ghanghas, his sister Priya, father Mahendra, and mother. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

As the youngest boxer in the Indian squad and in what is her senior international debut, Priya has been one of the standout performers at the Asian Boxing Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Having already beaten former world champion Chengyu Yang of China in the quarterfinals, Priya will take on North Korea’s Won Un Gyong in the final of the women’s 60kg category.

At first it was just Priya’s father who believed in his daughter’s ability. He’d been an enthusiastic kabaddi player but had been forced by his family to give up the sport and earn a living. “In my time, no one in my family encouraged me to be a sportsperson. So when I became a father, I knew I wanted my children to become sportspersons,” he says.

Boxing seemed like a good choice. “When Priya was only three years old, Vijender Singh won an Olympic bronze (at the 2008 Beijing Olympics). He is from Kaluwas, which is only about 20 kilometers from our village of Dhanana. There was a big craze surrounding the sport in the region then. So I wanted my children to be boxers and win a medal at the Olympics also,” he says.

It runs in the family

Priya wasn’t the first in her family to pursue the sport. Dhanana, in fact, has a reputation of producing women’s boxers. Two, Sakshi Ghanghas and her cousin Nitu Ghanghas, have won titles at the World Championships.

It wasn’t clear whether Priya was going to follow in the footsteps of her seniors, though. She and her brother Neeraj Ghanghas, who is a year older, started boxing in 2016. They were initially training at an academy in Charkhi Dadri—incidentally, where shooting Olympic medallist, Manu Bhaker had also taken a few classes.

But while Priya trained diligently, she didn’t get the kind of results she would have wanted. “She took part in district-level competitions, but she didn’t win over there. I suspected the judges weren’t treating her fairly,” says Mahendra.

That’s when he decided to shift his two children to Bhiwani. It wasn’t an easy choice. “Priya was also very good in studies. She scored 90 per cent in her class 12 board exams. So, she could have chosen to follow any line, but she wanted to make boxing her focus,” says Mahendra.

READ: Asian Boxing Championships 2026: Eight Indians in gold-medal bouts

Although coach Mahavir says there wasn’t anything that initially stood out about Priya, he soon realised her strengths. “Boxing isn’t purely a physical game. So, even if you have one or two excellent qualities and are average in others, you can still become a good boxer. Priya had some technical weaknesses early on. She often dropped her hands when punching, so we had to train her to stop doing that. But she also was genetically very strong, had a lot of tactical understanding of the sport, and had very good motor qualities,” he says.

Most of all, though, Mahavir says Priya surprised him with her stubbornness. “ Badi diler boxer hai (She is a very courageous boxer). Her willpower is very strong. She refuses to accept defeat. She keeps pushing herself. A lot of boxers are talented but make excuses. I don’t recall a single day that she hasn’t showed up to train. I’ve made her spar against boys and boxers who are far heavier than her, and she never steps back,” he says.

It wasn’t just Priya who had an adamant streak. So did her father. Although he ran a stone-crushing business in Dadri, he bought a house in Bhiwani and shifted with his family there. “I go to my business one or two days a week at most. Right now my priority is Priya. I take her to the academy and bring her back. When she travels for competitions, I always go with her. When we moved to Bhiwani, I bought a cow and a buffalo so that there’s enough milk for my children. My wife also makes sure that almonds are ground so that Priya gets the right nutrition. All these cost money, but mere mein bhi junoon hai (Even I have my passion). I have to make sure that Priya doesn’t lack anything,” he says.

The hex comes undone

Within a year of joining Bhiwani’s Boxing Academy, Priya’s luck began to change. She won the district and then State youth title in 2023, before following it up with the national title. After repeating the same wins the next year, she competed at the Asian Youth Championships, where she won silver. Her career graph has only gone one way since then.

There’s always good-natured teasing between Neeraj and Priya. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Incidentally, her record has mirrored that of her elder brother Neeraj, who has also won a national youth title and a silver medal at the Asian Youth Championships. This often leads to some good-natured teasing between the two. “They’ll compare each other’s results. One of them will say, ‘I’ve won this medal, when are you going to win this?’” says Mahendra.

This year, though, Priya has started making far bigger strides. She competed at her first senior national championships in Noida, where she took silver behind world champion Jaismine Lamboria. She might have fallen short of the title there, but she’s hoping to make up for it at the Asian Championships.

Her path, though, won’t be easy—considering her opponent had got the better of Olympic champion Lin Yu Ting in the semifinal. For her part, Priya is upbeat. “I spoke to her before the final, and she was very confident. She said koi dikkat nahi hai (there’s no problem),” says Mahendra.

Priya and her coach Mahavir. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

And although reaching a continental final in her first appearance is a significant achievement, Mahendra says her best is yet to come.

According to the Boxing Federation of India’s selection process, boxers who reach the finals at the Asian Boxing Championships 2026 secure direct qualification for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. “You look out for her after that also. She is a special talent,” he says.

Published on Apr 08, 2026