Puja Tomar became the first-ever Indian to win a bout at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in UFC Louisville 2024 on Saturday.
She defeated Rayanne Dos Santos of Brazil by a split decision of 30-27, 27-30, 29-28 in the women’s strawweight division.
“I want to show the world that Indian fighters are not losers. We are going all the way up! We are not going to stop! We’ll become a UFC champion soon! This win is not my win, it’s for all Indian fans and all Indian fighters. I walked out to my Indian song with the Indian flag, and I felt so proud. I had goosebumps,” Puja said after the match.
“Inside (the Octagon), there was no pressure, I just thought, ‘I have to win’. I took two or three punches, but I’m OK. I’m going to improve myself and I’m going all the way up.”
Puja and dos Santos went all three rounds: 15 minutes of gruelling, fast-paced back-and-forth action. Santos used her height advantage and range to dictate the action, but Tomar went kicking and screaming to the final bell, causing damage in the process.
In 2023, she was the first Indian woman to land a contract with the UFC, the biggest Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the world.
Born in Budhana village of Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, Puja started her combat sports journey with wushu having won five national titles and then switched to MMA with the now-defunct Super Fight League in 2012. She built a 3-1 record before moving to the ONE Championship, South Asia’s leading MMA promotion, in 2017. Puja, however, endured a torrid run at ONE, losing four of her five bouts. She joined the MFN in 2021 and notched up four consecutive wins.
Puja won the MFN strawweight title in November 2022, beating her former ONE opponent Bi Nguyen at MFN 10. In her previous fight in early July, Puja defended her title against Russia’s Anastasia Feofanova.
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