Akhil Kumar is an Indian boxer who has won several international and national boxing awards. He practices an “open guarded” boxing style. In 2005, the Indian government gave him the Arjuna Award for his achievements in international boxing. He was born on March 27, 1981 in Faizabad. Kumar first competed in International boxing in 1999, winning a Gold medal in the 6th YMCA. Junior International Boxing Championship. In 2001 he won another gold medal in the International Invitational Boxing Championship in Russia. In 2003, he won a Gold medal in the flyweight category by defeating Vilitio M Payla (Php) by 20-16. He won a Best Boxer Award three times, in additions to twelve Gold, one Silver, and four Bronze medals. 

Kumar qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games, beating among others, the silver medallist from the 2004 Summer Olympics, Worapoj Petchkoom, at the Asian boxing qualifying tournament in Bangkok. At the Olympic event, he made his way to the second round in the Bantamweight 54 kg category beating Frenchman Ali Hallab on points 12-5. In the round of 16, he controversially[citation needed] beat current World Champion Sergey Vodopyanov, coming from 2-6 down in the second round of the bout. The score was tied 9-9 at the end of the fourth round but the judges' decided in Kumar's favor because he landed a greater number of punches. He lost 3-10 to Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova in the quarter finals on August 18, 2008. He was coached by the Indian Boxing Coach Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu. Kumar received the Arjuna award in 2005.