• Work is still on-going to rebuild the site styling and features. Please report any issues you may experience so we can look into it.

Any UFC fighters from India or Pakistan?

Currently Anshul Jubli (2-1 UFC) and Puja Tomar (1-0 UFC) are the only Indian fighters in the UFC. Formerly Bharat Khandare (0-1 UFC). Also formerly Arjan Bhullar (3-1 UFC) is of Indian descent but born in Canada. There have been no UFC Pakistani fighters to my knowledge.
 
Captain Insano said:
He might live there but there's more to being English than living there.

It's like Anthony Joshua with an Africa tattoo. He won't live there bc it's sucks but he wants to be proud of his heritage. Is he English, kinda. Same with Amir Khan.
Click to expand...
Ah, I didn't see this.


No, not kinda.

They are both British.
 
Dreyga_King of Sherbums said:
Yeah, there actually are Indian fighters in the UFC right now, and more could be on the way.

The most notable one is Anshul Jubli, who won Road to UFC Season 1 in the lightweight division. He made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 218 and got a second-round TKO win over Jeka Saragih. His last fight was at UFC 294, where he lost to Mike Breeden by KO. He’s still on the roster, so India does have representation in the UFC.

There’s also Puja Tomar, who made history as the first Indian woman to fight and win in the UFC. She beat Rayanne dos Santos by split decision in her debut at UFC Fight Night 214.

And if you go back a bit, Bharat Kandare was the first Indian fighter to ever fight in the UFC. He debuted in 2017 after coming up through the Super Fight League, but he’s no longer on the roster.

Outside of the UFC, though, Indian MMA is getting a big push. The UFC Performance Institute (PI) in Shanghai has started bringing in Indian fighters to train and develop their skills. They’re doing this through the UFC Academy Combine, which is basically a scouting program to find top prospects.

Some Indian fighters currently training at the Shanghai PI:
• Sumit Kumar – Fought on Road to UFC, now developing at the PI.
• Roshan Mainam – Former ONE Championship fighter, now training in Shanghai.
• Punyajit Likharu – An undefeated pro prospect selected for the UFC Academy Combine.

The UFC is clearly testing the waters with Indian talent. If one of these guys gets signed and does well, it could be a huge boost for MMA in India.

So yeah, India does have fighters in the UFC right now, but it looks like there could be even more in the near future. If the UFC is serious about growing the sport in India, this could be just the beginning.
Click to expand...
I can see why you were poster of the year -- very nice reply
 
No long standing combat sports culture in the area such as the -stans, usa, Japan, Holland, etc. This is the #1 reason.

Also, India and Pakistan are among the lowest scoring on average grip strength tests, with which we can infer that they have a lower physical strength on average.

This is still unexplained, my theory is a prevalence of malnutrition in the region, but the stats hold even among the highest GDP in the countries.
1000037566.png
 
Last edited:
There's definitely no indian fighters from Australia as we barely have any indians here
 
Pakistani culture is a gun culture, not a hand to hand fighting culture. You fuck about, you get shot. Is normal. Barely any boxing or mma coaches there either. An elite fighter like shazaib rindh had to escape to get any half decent coaching, he pretty much was self taught until he left.

On the other hand, british pakistanis are doing brilliantly in boxing. Shabaz masoud and adam azim have recently become world champions. Hamzah Sheeraz is fighting for a world title in a couple of weeks. Up and coming prospects galore too. Abdul khan, ibraheem suleimaan, junaid bostan, aqib fiaz. Brit pakistanis are generally turning to boxing rather than mma but there was one, haider khan, in the recent pfl event.
 
EndlessCritic said:
How has nobody mentioned legendary MMA fighter Satish Jha yet?

edit: Holy shit, Satish Jha actually fought Aspinall. Jesus christ.
Click to expand...

I know Satish. Brother, the thread is UFC fighters from India, its not MMA god of India. Hence I left his name out because he is a transcended being!

 
Captain Insano said:
He might live there but there's more to being English than living there.

It's like Anthony Joshua with an Africa tattoo. He won't live there bc it's sucks but he wants to be proud of his heritage. Is he English, kinda. Same with Amir Khan.
Click to expand...
He doesn't just live there, he was born and raised there. He does not need to be Anglo to be from England.

Anthony Joshua is of African descent, he's not literally from there.

The thread is asing about fighters from India or Pakistan, not people of South Asian descent. Ie, the quality of India's training and what not. A boxer who learned how to fight in the UK because he was born there isn't relevant.
 
Indian ONE FC fighters: https://www.onefc.com/?country=in - Only ones I've heard of are Phogat (high level wrestler - U23 worlds silver, asian champs bronze, has 4 sisters who've all medalled in the World or Asian championships. There was an Indian movie roughly based on the careers of her older sisters, not seen it though) and Arjun Bhullar.
I'd say India has potential (as every country does), since they have a modern wrestling culture, but mostly their world-level non-cricket/hockey athletes all come from a few states, the most successful of which is Haryana. Very successful athletes there can get a job in the police/civil service, so job security's an incentive to do sports - sounds similar to places like Mongolia or Russia. Even prospective athletes are sometimes identified and given government jobs. Both countries do have "pehlwani" wrestling in their culture, but it's nowhere near as popular as wrestling in Iran or Central Asia.

There was a guy in ONE FC (Bashir Ahmad) from Pakistan, though he was in the US military and then later moved to Pakistan and opened gyms there I think and basically set up their competitive MMA scene. There are others here: https://www.onefc.com/?country=pk - Mujtaba fought Northcutt and Ruotolo.

The thing with these countries is obviously loads of the grittiest people there are dirt poor, to the point of having stunted growth (which is why they're taller in Western countries. I read about this in Poor Economics, written by Nobel prize-winning economists) or just have no opportunity to train. They also have a lot of corruption and nepotism - for example, Pakistan's soccer team was suspended from FIFA because some people basically did a coup/hostile takeover of their Football Association. So there's going to be fewer good systems or training facilities. Many of their streets aren't great for running.
They also don't have a sports mindset - their middle class know sports aren't a stable or certain job path, so push their kids away from sports, arts or humanities and into safe paths like engineering, medicine, accountancy, IT or the military. Sports are for kids, but not for teens or adults. And those are countries with a lot of corporal punishment/authoritarian parenting, filial piety culture and where the only safety net is extended family, so I don't think they're going to go against their parents' wishes as easily as in some other countries. Working hard physically seems to be for people who have to do it at work, and not for recreation. I remember reading that several of India's international cricket team failed their own fitness test - 2km in less than 8.5 minutes - says something about how little they value physical conditioning. These are also poor countries where being fat is still seen as a sign of wealth and of strength.
 
WoozyFailGuy said:
No long standing combat sports culture in the area such as the -stans, usa, Japan, Holland, etc. This is the #1 reason.

Also, India and Pakistan are among the lowest scoring on average grip strength tests, with which we can infer that they have a lower physical strength on average.

This is still unexplained, my theory is a prevalence of malnutrition in the region, but the stats hold even among the highest GDP in the countries.
View attachment 1081746
Click to expand...
Interesting bit of data, thanks for posting it. India has a big bodybuilding culture, so the grip strength level seems odd compared to other developing countries that only have football/soccer. India has a bit of a wrestling culture too, I think I recall a documentary about it. Maybe the grip strength level has to do with low meat consumption.
 
JPOMMA said:
Interesting bit of data, thanks for posting it. India has a big bodybuilding culture, so the grip strength level seems odd compared to other developing countries that only have football/soccer. India has a bit of a wrestling culture too, I think I recall a documentary about it. Maybe the grip strength level has to do with low meat consumption.
Click to expand...
India is too big and diverse to really draw any great conclusions. It has wrestling culture, but it's not widespread or has great infrastructure behind it to generate a steady supply of grapplers into MMA for instance.

Even though India has body building culture, the overwhelming majority of Indians have no interest in it. The average Indian diet is high on fat and low on protein in general, and that's generally true in their diasporas as well.
 
fita said:
On the other hand, british pakistanis are doing brilliantly in boxing. Shabaz masoud and adam azim have recently become world champions. Hamzah Sheeraz is fighting for a world title in a couple of weeks. Up and coming prospects galore too. Abdul khan, ibraheem suleimaan, junaid bostan, aqib fiaz. Brit pakistanis are generally turning to boxing rather than mma but there was one, haider khan, in the recent pfl event.
Click to expand...

<Dany07>
 
JPOMMA said:
Interesting bit of data, thanks for posting it. India has a big bodybuilding culture, so the grip strength level seems odd compared to other developing countries that only have football/soccer. India has a bit of a wrestling culture too, I think I recall a documentary about it. Maybe the grip strength level has to do with low meat consumption.
Click to expand...
Didn't think about it! No red meat at all, low meat consumption generally, the low protein idea definitely makes sense. Are eggs very common in their cuisine?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,257,840
Messages
56,855,931
Members
175,432
Latest member
Kreyszig

Share this page

Back
Top