Gurcharan Singh (born 10 April 1977) is an Indian professional boxer born in Rurewal, Punjab, and currently settled in Philadelphia, US.
He competed in the light heavyweight division at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Although he lost in the first round at the 1996 Summer Olympics, Singh excelled his boxing performance at the Sydney games by defeating South Korea's Ki Soo-Choi, and South Africa's Danie Venter in the first two rounds. During the quarterfinal match, Singh made an early lead against Ukraine's Andriy Fedchuk; however, he failed to evade a punch in the last round until Fedchuk drew a sudden death point to end the match. As a result, the judges made a decision to break a deadlock and earned a score of 60–42 to the Ukrainian boxer; therefore, Singh did not advance into the semi-final match.
Gurucharan Singh was last employed as a Naik Subedar in the 17 Sikh Battalion in the Indian Army.
Gurucharan Singh relocated to the US and settled in the boxing town of Philadelphia while pursuing his professional boxing career from 2001 to 2010.
Olympic results 1996 (as a light heavyweight boxer) Lost to Enrique Flores (Puerto Rico) 7–15
2000 (as a light heavyweight boxer) Defeated Ki Soo-Choi (South Korea) 11–9 Defeated Danie Venter (South Africa) – won after the referee stopped the fourth and final round in the boxing match Lost to Andriy Fedchuk (Ukraine) 12–+12 (lost by a sudden death point)
Professional boxing After his disappointing loss in the Olympics semifinal to Andriy Fedchuk, which Gurucharan still believes was an unfair result against him due to a sudden death point, 6 months after the Olympic loss while he was training in Czech at a boxing camp he left without informing anyone, only after a while it was realized that he migrated to USA. As he left without informing anyone at workplace or in the Indian Boxing Federation his then employer Indian Army considered him AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) and faced and inquiry on arrival.
Career
In 2001 Gurucharan signed up for Pro Boxing in the United States. His first bout was with a lesser known Derrick Minter which he won in the first round on TKO. He was nicknamed Guru "The Storm" Nagra and had unbeatable run for record 20 straight fights with 11 KO/TKO's before he was stopped in the 10th round by Timur Ibragimov in 2010. Guru was also promoted as "The world's first professional Asian Heavyweight Boxer". In the later part of his professional boxing career Guru suffered various bodily injuries and subsequent surgeries that kept him away from the ring with only professional 4 bouts from 2004 to 2010.
Return to India With the AIBA easing its restrictions on professional boxers participating in Olympics or other international boxing events, in 2014 Guru patched up with the Indian Boxing Confederation and the Indian Army and returned to Indian 15 years after he had disappeared with a desire to represent India at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes2120–1Timur IbragimovTKO10 (10), 24 Aug 2010 2020–0Aleksandrs SelezensPTS67 Mar 2009 1919–0Colin KennaKO4 (8)27 Sep 2008 18Win18–0Mike MillerUD619 Oct 2007 17Win17–0Jermell Barnes104 Jun 2004 16Win16–0Charles BrownUD66 Mar 2004 15Win15–0Cliff NellonKO3 (6), 9 Dec 2003 14Win14–0Scott JonesUD627 Jun 2003 13Win13–0John BattleUD66 Jun 2003 12Win12–0Alejandro TorresUD418 Mar 2003 11Win11–0Bryan BlakelyTKO1 (4)31 Jan 2003 10Win10–0Francisco PenaTKO2 (4)13 Dec 2002 9Win9–0Andrew Hutchinson49 Aug 2002 8Win 8–0Donald Colbert2 (?)22 Jun 2002 7Win 7–0Phil FordTKO1 (?), 26 Apr 2002 6Win 6–0Jesse OltmannsTKO1 (6)16 Mar 2002 5Win5–0Thomas TalleyTKO1 (?)18 Jan 2002 4Win4–0Forrest McFarlandTKO2 (4)19 Dec 2001 3Win3–0Benny GarciaTKO1 (4)9 Nov 2001 2Win2–0Jerry Arentzen428 Apr 2001 1Win1–0Derrick Minter1 (?)24 Mar 2001
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