Kentucky, Jun 9 (PTI) India’s Puja Tomar scripted history as she became the first mixed martial arts fighter from the country to win a bout at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in UFC Louisville here.<\/p>\n
Debutant Tomar eked out a 30-27, 27-30, 29-28 split-decision win over Brazil’s Rayanne dos Santos in the straw-weight (52kg) bout on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“This win is not my win. This win is for all Indian fans and all Indian fighters. before everyone thought that Indian fighters did not stand anywhere. I only thought I have to win and show the world that Indian fighters are not losers,” Tomar told Sony Sport Network after her win.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old, known as “cyclone”, signed a contract with the UFC last year in October to become the first woman from India to compete in the biggest Mixed Martial Arts promotion.<\/p>\n
Anshul Jubli and Bharat Kandare have represented India on the world stage in the UFC, as has Canada-based Arjan Singh Bhullar.<\/p>\n
“I feel great, I had come from home thinking that I will win. I have worked really hard that’s why I am here and the crowd is cheering me. I was very strong and motivated so that’s why I won.”<\/p>\n
Born in Budhana village of Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, Tomar is a five-time national wushu champion and also has a background in karate and taekwondo.<\/p>\n
“I was confident of winning, I attacked a lot. But I wasn’t able to give my 100 percent. I felt pressured in the second round. I need to improve on a lot of skills like take downs.<\/p>\n
“My MMA journey was not easy, this win is for my mother, she has fought with the world for me. So this win is for her.”<\/p>\n
She has competed in other tournaments including Matrix Fight Night, where she won the straw-weight title twice.<\/p>\n
MMA is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world<\/p>\n
Ultimate Fighting Championship is an American mixed martial arts promotion company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kentucky, Jun 9 (PTI) India’s Puja Tomar scripted history as she became the first mixed martial arts fighter from the country to win a bout at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in UFC Louisville here. Debutant Tomar eked out a 30-27, 27-30, 29-28 split-decision win over Brazil’s Rayanne dos Santos in the straw-weight (52kg) bout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-241919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}