Career
Akhil Kumar was born in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh on 27 March 1981. He started boxing at 13. His first fight at “School State level Boxing” was in Haryana. Kumar qualified for the Athens Games by winning second place at the 1st AIBA Asian 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Guangzhou, PR China. In the first round he lost to Uzbekistan's Tulashboy Doniyorov. At the Olympics 2004, he lost in the first round to Jerome Thomas.
In 2005, Kumar won the gold medal at the 4th Commonwealth Federation Boxing Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. He defeated Bongani Mahalangu of South Africa by a narrow margin of 18-17 in the 54 kg final.
In the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in the Bantamweight 54 kg category by edging out Nigerian Nestor Bolum and defeating Mauritian Bruno Julie in the final.
Kumar qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games. He was coached by the Indian Boxing Coach Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu.
Apart from his Boxing career, Akhil performed in Asha Bhosale’s Precious Platinum Album “Tum Vada to karte ho” as a leading actor. He also participated in the popular Reality Dance Show “Jhalak Dikhla Ja’s session-04. There he impressed Dhak Dhak Girl Madhuri Dixit with his innocent smile and cute but straight forward answers. He also made dancing sensation Malika Arora Khan “Munni” to dance with him.