Chinese prizefighter with cerebral palsy punches way to top

Source: Xinhua| 2019-02-13 08:25:30|Editor: Liu
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TIANJIN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Being a prizefighter has long been the dream of Wang Qiang, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in 1986 when he was only one year old.

Wang, 33, from Tianjin in north China, is different from other patients with cerebral palsy, a condition characterized by abnormal muscle tone, reflexes or motor coordination.

After decades of boxing exercise and intelligence training, Wang is robust and able to talk slowly.

It was still painful for Wang's mother recalling the devastating moment when she got the diagnosis.

"We were stunned with the diagnosis," said Liu Huiqin. Wang was born prematurely, suffering from encephalorrhagia, jaundice and pneumonia, and was only saved after emergency treatment lasting over a month. Unfortunately, Wang's brain was left critically damaged.

Since then, Wang's parents have sought treatment in nearly all of Tianjin's hospitals, and have consulted with experienced folk massage therapists. With four to five hours of full-body massage every day, accompanied by language training, Wang's physical condition and language ability gradually improved.

"One day, when I came home, my son tried his best to say 'M...M...Mom.' Mom was the only word he said until the age of seven," Liu said.

Wang's parents were eager to send him to a normal school rather than one for special education. Over the next two years, Wang learned primary math and puzzle games to cultivate his thinking ability. Finally, aged nine, Wang was admitted into a normal primary school.

However, some of his schoolmates bullied and teased Wang for his unusual physical condition. Wang wanted a life of dignity, so at 12, he started to learn boxing.

A former police boxing coach, Wang's father became his teacher. "Even the simple skills and movements are things he needs to practice hundreds of times," Wang's father said.

Shadowboxing and hitting a heavy punchbag for several hours every day, Wang gradually improved in speed, power, endurance, accuracy and strategy under his father's tailored schedule.

After years of training, Wang was eager to become a prizefighter, and in September 2014, Wang's dream came true.

Standing in the ring under the limelight, Wang filtered out the shouts and cheers from the audience. "The opponent is my only target. Go and fight!" Wang said to himself to calm his nerves.

Although Wang lost his first professional fight, he didn't give up, and success finally came in a national boxing championship three months later.

"This is the first time I have ranked first in a professional boxing championship," Wang said, recalling the feeling of holding a champion's trophy for the first time.

Wang established a boxing club in 2009 and has admitted nine students from across China.

Liu Haipeng, one of his students, said it was Wang's story that inspired him to become a boxer. "His perseverance touches me a lot," Liu said.

"I will devote my whole life to boxing," Wang said. "And I hope to expand the scale of my club and coach more boxers."

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