Other pugilists who had won medals in National and International championships also shared a similar sentiment as they credited their success to Coach Leishangthem Ibomcha Singh who had guided and nurtured them during their formative stages. In short coach Ibomcha Singh popularly known as Oja Ibomcha among the boxing fraternity in this sports powerhouse of the country is a mentor, artist and rebel, all rolled into one.

He spotted Asian champion Suranjoy so called ‘Pocket Hercules’ in the boxing circles, in a local boxing camp at Sagolband Lukram Leirak in Imphal in 1999 and MC Mary Kom in 2000 and later enrolled them in the Sports Authority of India, Imphal he similarly discovered L Sarita and P Narjit in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Earlier he had spotted the Asian Games Bangkok boxing champion Ng Dingko in 1990 and trained him.

Coach Ibomcha has produced as many as 38 international medalists and a number of national medalists in boxing including two Arjuna awardees, two Olympians, two world champions and one world military games champion.

“Give me sincerity, I give your future,” this is what Coach Ibomcha had written on the walls of SAG indoor stadium wherein young boys and girls of the Sports Authority of India are given boxing training. Another inscription says, “No risk no boxing”.

As many as 300 boxing disciples who were once trained under his guidance including four times world women boxing champion MC Mary Kom, L Sarita, Ng Dingko, P Narjit, S Suresh, M Suranjoy etc were presently working under various service sectors across India. The relationship with his students is so good that he can even recollect the birthdays of some of them.

It was Coach Ibomcha who introduced modern boxing in Manipur right from his formative boxing career when he was in the Assam Regiment. “Those days were the turning point as I switched over to boxing after one of our local brothers introduced me to a boxing glove,” Ibomcha recalls.

Later he moved to Imphal to impart training in boxing to the beginners in the early eighties. Those were the days when Imphalites used to see the team led by Coach Ibomcha jogging every morning.

No matter how good a coach he is, Oja Ibomcha knows he can never outshine his wards. Yet, he waits for one of his wards to succeed and celebrates like a child when it happens as one can not produce champions everyday. “After coaching for more than 25 years, you tend to enjoy all those moments,” he admits.

“We have exceptional talent in our genes as we were born and brought up in a war like situation since ancient times,” he feels and added, “and I believe this is why our boys and girls dominate in rings.”

Coach Ibomcha had applied for the Dronacharya Award last year as he devotes his whole time and energy for the development of boxing and training of interested youth of the country since the inception of the Manipur Amateur Boxing Association (MABA) in 1980.

“I am not asking for something special, I’m just asking for recognition,” he said. Even though he does not have the Dronacharya Award as yet, to his students, he is the greatest boxing guru.