High schooler in Hunan crowned boxing champion inside the ring days before acing China's national college entrance exam

During the 17-day countdown to China’s 2022 national college entrance exam, Peng Hu, who was preparing to sit the exam, participated in a boxing match and won the men’s 60kg competition. Only 17 days later, he sat the exam and scored 638 out of 750.

Photo shows Peng Hu (first from right) inside the boxing ring as he is crowned champion by the referee after defeating his opponent to win a boxing match. (Photo courtesy of Hu Jin)

Peng’s story has been heatedly discussed by Chinese netizens recently, with the hashtags “A high school student wins a boxing match before taking the national college entrance exam” and “A boxing champion sits the national college entrance exam and scores 638” becoming trending topics on Chinese social media platforms.

The young man has said that there are many high school students in China who can perform well academically while simultaneously developing their own interests and hobbies.

Peng first started to learn boxing two years ago. According to his coach, Hu Jin, Peng never once slacked off during his training. Although he often got nosebleeds during training sessions, Peng had never thought about flinching away, but instead he always went all out to complete all of his training activities to the fullest extent possible.

“My father has always wanted me to be a strong and courageous person,” said Peng, whose father is a policeman is Hengshan county, Hengyang city, central China’s Hunan Province.

In 2019, Peng told his father that he wanted to learn boxing, and his father said that Peng had to go to the provincial capital, Changsha, to learn the sport as there was no boxing club in their hometown. If Peng was able to get admitted by a high school located in Changsha, he could then learn boxing there.

Despite the immense intensity of the competition, Peng was eventually admitted by the High School Attached to Hunan Normal University, one of the four best high schools in Changsha, thanks to the high score he achieved in the high school entrance examination.

During his high school years, Peng devoted all his after-school time to his boxing training. “I usually got up at 5:40 a.m. and participated in training between 6 and 7:10 a.m. And in the afternoons, I would train between 1:10 and 2:00 p.m.,” Peng said.

During his final year at the high school in Changsha, Peng became even more self-disciplined in order to balance his two primary commitments of studying and boxing.

“If I slacked off, I wouldn’t have enough time to train. When I became aware of this fact, I decided to increase my concentration on my studies so that I could have more spare time for boxing training,” said Peng, adding that the fundamental reason for him to exercise stricter self-discipline was that he wanted to squeeze more time out of his day to participate in boxing games.

When Peng decided to take part in the boxing match, which would take place just days before he was to sit the national college entrance exam, his father expressed his firm support.

“Although he was a high school student, he was an experienced amateur boxer,” said Hu, Peng’s coach, adding that he cared more about whether Peng would enjoy himself during the experience than the final results of the match.

“I couldn’t say for sure that I would win, but I could at least protect myself during the match,” Peng told his coach. However, in the end he won the match 2-1 after three rounds in a fierce bout with his competitor inside the ring.

Speaking of the reason why he wanted to study at a university in Beijing, Peng said there is a boxing club located in Beijing that he hopes to join, and the academic atmosphere is comparatively mature in Beijing. “I won’t give up my academic studies because of boxing. For me, to be a professional boxer is not enough, I must also learn other skills in order to earn a living for myself,” Peng expressed.