India’s Mary Kom rose to the top of the boxing world rankings Thursday, two months after becoming the first female boxer to win six world championships.
The 36-year-old mother-of-three was ranked number one by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) in the Light Fly 45-48 kilogramme category, scoring 1700 points.
Kom capped her 2018 campaign with her sixth world championship title after defeating Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota by 5-0 in Delhi.
Okhota is ranked number two in the world, with 1100 points.
That victory took her past Ireland’s Katie Taylor, and level with the men’s record held by Cuban legend Felix Savon as the most successful pugilist ever at the world championships.
She also won gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Silesian Open Boxing Tournament in Poland. She bagged a silver at the Strandja Memorial in Bulgaria.
Kom won a silver at the inaugural women’s world championships in 2001, kickstarting her international career.
She went on to win gold in each of the next five world championships.
Kom, who was the subject of a Bollywood film in 2014, won bronze at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
She is likely to miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as her 48-kg category is not included in the Games roaster.
