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LA28

Jaismine Lamboria chasing Commonwealth Games gold after making World Boxing history  

July 20, 2026

Jaismine Lamboria gets her arm raised in the World Boxing Championships Liverpool 2025 women’s 57kg final

India’s Jaismine Lamboria is chasing more medals and accolades ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, later this month. 

The 24-year-old enters the tournament as the first boxer ever to win a gold medal at the World Boxing Championships, having made history in Liverpool in 2025 when her 57kg final was the first to conclude.  

Lamboria arrives in Glasgow among India’s hopefuls to achieve Commonwealth Games success but insists she does not feel the weight of expectation from her nation ahead of a crucial tournament. 

“Right now, I don’t feel any pressure because our preparation is going really very well and we are prepared to perform our best,” Lamboria told World Boxing. “For me it is more important that I give it my all. I can’t focus on results, but I’m hoping to get a gold medal.” 

Lamboria’s path to this point has been far from conventional. 

The fighting city of Bhiwani in India is where Lamboria first forged her way as an Olympic-style boxer, however, she was not the first in her family to lace up the gloves. 

“It all started by watching my uncles competing on an international level,” Lamboria said. “I grew up in a place where in almost every house you can find a boxer. The place is called Bhiwani, so that’s why I started my boxing journey, watching them from my childhood. 

“My uncles, Sandeep and Praveen, both boxed at international level and they told me I had to start boxing. From day one they have guided me and they are my personal coaches as well. My family is very supportive.” 

Jaismine Lamboria’s corner team in-between rounds at the World Boxing Championships Liverpool 2025

Few boxers have a fighting family quite like Lamboria’s. 

Her great-grandfather was a heavyweight boxer and two-time Asian Games gold medallist, while her grandfather, Hon. Captain Chander Bhan Lamboria, was a wrestler. Her uncles, who introduced her to boxing, also won national titles. 

Their guidance helped Lamboria finally claim a gold medal at last year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, after having previously fallen short. 

“That was a special moment for me because I participated in the World Championships in 2022 and 2023, but I came back without a medal,” she said. “So, in 2025 it was a special moment for me. It was the first time for me becoming world champion.  

“It was a really proud and emotional moment for me, and I have gratitude towards the people who helped me on this journey, the Boxing Federation of India and all the coaches who helped me through my whole journey. That was a dream come true for me.”  

The nation of India, a country more known for cricket than fighting, is slowly paving its way as a dominant force in Olympic-style boxing, with fighters such as Nishant Dev making the switch to the professional ranks in recent years.  

“Right now in India, boxing is going really very well and Indian boxers are performing very well at an international level, both amateur and professional,” Lamboria said. “We have quality boxers and we have a number of boxers here. We can compete with each other and we make a good team. 

“I watched Mary Kom. She’s a six-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist. She’s a role model for every Indian boxer. Right now we also have Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain. 

“Indian boxing also did very well at the last World Championships. We won four medals, which is great. We are performing very well and we will do even better in the future.” 

Jaismine Lamboria receives her 57kg division gold medal at Liverpool 2025

The Commonwealth Games represent another opportunity for Lamboria to continue her rise, but her biggest ambition lies further ahead. Having gained valuable experience at the Paris Olympics in 2024, she already has her sights set on Los Angeles 2028. 

“Paris was my first Olympics and I learnt a lot there,” she said. “Watching the best fighters and all the different matches was a very good experience for me as a young boxer.” 

And Lamboria’s ambition for the tournament? 

“My dream is to get an Olympic gold medal,” she said. 

Tom Ivers for World Boxing 

Filed Under: 2026 Tagged With: Commonwealth Games, Jaismine Lamboria, LA28

Japanese amateur Sewonrets Okazawa vows to become the face of boxing ahead of LA28

July 13, 2026

Okazawa
Sewonrets Okazawa competing in the 70kg final of the World Boxing Championships Liverpool 2025

“I was laughed at for my colour,” recalled Japanese-Ghanaian Sewonrets Okazawa when discussing his upbringing and the adversity that came with being a rare Japanese schoolboy of African heritage.

Rather than allowing the prejudice he experienced to define him, Okazawa learned to embrace the visibility that came with standing out. “My skin colour attracted attention,” he explained. “This made me happy. I like being the centre of attention.”

Perhaps, that familiarity of being over-analysed and constantly under the microscope as a youth has served Okazawa well in his boxing career, as opponents attempt to dissect his awkward style and develop plans to overcome it. Nevertheless, it is additional attention that Okazawa continues to yearn for, keen to bring more Japanese eyes to the amateur version of the sport by medalling at the Los Angeles 28 Olympic Games in two years’ time.

Who is Sewonrets Okazawa?

The Olympics has always been the target for the Yamagata-born southpaw, who originally aspired to represent Japan as a wrestler until an intimidating boxer approached him at his school and asked him to join the local boxing club. Without hesitation, more due to fear than excitement, Okazawa nodded his head in agreement and never looked back.

Okazawa
Sewonrets Okazawa posing at the World Boxing Championships Liverpool 2025

From that point onwards, he has grown to love the sport – or ‘art’ as he calls it – inspired by Cuban standouts such as Guillermo Rigondeaux and Lazaro Alvarez, taking influence from their fights whilst simultaneously building a reputation of his own.

Olympic experience and international glory

Okazawa picked up the silver medal of the 2019 Asian Championships in Bangkok before achieving his dream of competing at the Olympics and doing so on home soil at Tokyo 2020, only to be eliminated in the second round of the welterweight (63-69kg) tournament. However, the now 30-year-old bounced back and claimed two high-profile tournament victories, including the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou to re-emerge as a threat to the Olympic podium. 

Despite those feats, at Paris 2024, Okazawa was left wanting again, eliminated in the second round once more, this time as a light-middleweight (71kg).

Still, his goal is clear and his will is as infectious as ever as LA28 and a third consecutive Olympic Games loom. In an interview with World Boxing, Okazawa, who trains alongside pound-for-pound Japanese professional boxing star Naoya Inoue at Kanoya Gym in Kagoshima, explained that his burning desire to claim gold in the United States also serves a wider purpose.

“I am obsessed with amateur boxing, I love this sport. I want to make amateur boxing a more popular sport in Japan, that is why I appear on such a variety of shows. My greatest achievement was the World Championship gold, it was the biggest title for me but I felt sad after it.

“I thought winning a gold medal at the World Championships [in 2021] would bring about a major change, but the public simply wasn’t interested. The reaction back home was even greater for the Asian Games victory than for that [World Championship win]. 

“Yet, the event that had an even bigger impact, despite the loss, was the Paris Olympics. Witnessing the influence of Olympic-related competitions, I vowed to win an Olympic gold medal and become the face of the sport, not just for me but for all Japanese amateur boxers. 

“If I can take gold in Los Angeles, I can be a star in Japan, I am sure of that. It’s not something that I want, it is something that I need.”

Okazawa
Sewonrets Okazawa receives his World Boxing Championships silver medal

Since his Paris 2024 elimination, Okazawa has responded well, finishing as the runner-up to the highly rated Odel Kamara (ENG) at the World Boxing Cup Finals Sheffield 2024 before adding another silver medal, from the World Boxing Championships Liverpool 2025, to his growing list of accolades – trumped only by Torekhan Sabyrkhan (KAZ) in a razor-tight final.

These experiences, alongside Okazawa’s mentality and the company in which he surrounds himself with at Kanoya make him one to watch during the run-up to Los Angeles, where he hopes his long-standing thirst for Olympic glory may finally be quenched. 

Tom Eaton for World Boxing

Filed Under: 2026 Tagged With: LA28, Sewonrets Okazawa

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