{"id":282201,"date":"2026-05-04T01:17:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=282201"},"modified":"2026-05-04T01:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:51:54","slug":"sonam-zomba-defends-mfn-world-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/sonam-zomba-defends-mfn-world-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonam Zomba defends MFN world title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Staff Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>NEW DELHI, 3 May:<\/strong> The state&#8217;s mixed martial artist Sonam Zomba defended her Matrix Fight Night (MFN) women&#8217;s strawweight world title at MFN 18 on 2 May in Greater Noida.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zomba defeated Brazil&#8217;s Maristela Alves via submission (armbar\/reverse armbar) at 4:39 of Round-2 in the main event, held at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Indoor Sports Complex.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This was Zomba&#8217;s first title defence since winning the vacant belt at MFN17.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Headlining the event, the 27-year-old fighter from Tawang dominated Alves in the first round by consistent grounding. However, Alves dropped Zomba in the second, during which she swiftly switched the position, leading to a reverse armbar submission.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zomba trains at Bidang MMA &amp; Fitness Gym in Guwahati. She improved her pro record to 8-1 (7-1 pre-fight in some reports) with an eight-fight win streak. She overcame a serious elbow injury and a multi-year layoff earlier in her career.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Alves challenged with striking and reach early, but Zomba adapted and secured the finish. Zomba has dedicated the win to her state and young athletes, particularly women in the region.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Congratulating Zomba on her first title defence fight, Chief Minister Pema Khandu stated, &#8220;What an inspiring performance by Sonam Zomba\u00a0\u00a0 in defending her MFN Strawweight World Title at Matrix Fight Night 18.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;With determination, discipline, and grace, she has once again made history, becoming a proud symbol of excellence from Arunachal Pradesh and a true inspiration for young athletes across India and beyond,&#8221; Khandu added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein also congratulated Zomba on her spectacular win.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Her performance reflects unwavering determination, discipline, and resilience &#8211; qualities that are now defining the sporting spirit of Arunachal Pradesh.\u00a0 Wishing her continued success as she takes Indian MMA to even greater heights,&#8221; the DCM said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Staff Reporter NEW DELHI, 3 May: The state&#8217;s mixed martial artist Sonam Zomba defended her Matrix Fight Night (MFN) women&#8217;s strawweight world title at MFN 18 on 2 May in Greater Noida. Zomba defeated Brazil&#8217;s Maristela Alves via submission (armbar\/reverse armbar) at 4:39 of Round-2 in the main event, held at the Shaheed Vijay Singh [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-282201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282201","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=282201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282210,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282201\/revisions\/282210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}