Nitu Ghanghas

Nitu Ghanghas (born 19 October 2000) is an Indian boxer who is 2023 world champion in minimumweight category and a two-time world youth champion in light flyweight, supported by OGQ. She won the gold medal at the 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games in the minimumweight category.

Early life
Nitu Ghanghas was born on 19 October 2000, in the Dhanana village of Haryana’s Bhiwani district. Her father, Jai Bhagwan, was an employee at the Haryana Rajya Sabha in Chandigarh. Her mother’s name is Mukesh Devi and Nitu has a younger brother named Akshit Kumar. According to Mukesh Devi, Nitu was a ‘naughty child’ and would often get into fights with her siblings and at school. Her father introduced Nitu to boxing to find a constructive way to channel the energy. Nitu Ghanghas started to formally train by the time she was 12 but she failed to make any inroads in the first couple of years. Frustrated by her lack of progress, Nitu Ghanghas decided to give up on the sport but her father intervened. Her father took a three-year-long unpaid leave from his job to help his daughter realize her dreams of becoming a boxer. He did some farming on a small stretch of land he owned and also took a loan of about six lakh rupees (about US$7500) to take care of the costs. He also oversaw Nitu’s training and diet personally. During this period, Nitu Ghanghas was noticed by renowned coach Jagdish Singh, the founder of the renowned Bhiwani Boxing Club and one of the mentors of Vijender Singh. Nitu, a BA student at the Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, joined the Bhiwani Boxing Club and used to travel 40 km every day on her father’s scooter to train.

2022 Commonwealth Games
Nitu won the gold medal for India in the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham after defeating Demie-Jade Resztan of England by 5-0 on 7 August 2022 in the 48 category (minimumweight category).

2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships
She became only the sixth Indian boxer (male or female) to become the World Champion after defeating Lutsaikhany Altantsetseg of Mongolia by 5-0 on 25th March 2023 in the minimumweight category.