SportsPosted at: Sep 20 2026 1:24PM


Suchika Tariyal assures India maiden MMA medal

Aichi-Nagoya, Sept 20 (UNI) At 36, when many athletes would be contemplating the twilight of their competitive careers, Suchika Tariyal is instead writing a new chapter for Indian combat sport.
The Indian scripted Asian Games history on Sunday, storming into the women's Traditional MMA 60kg semifinals with a 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Mongolia's Altanchimeg Baigalmaa and, in the process, assuring India its first-ever medal in Mixed Martial Arts.
With MMA making its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya, Tariyal's semifinal berth guarantees her at least a bronze and puts India on the podium in a discipline in which the country had never previously competed for an Asian Games medal.
But Tariyal's journey to this historic moment has been anything but straightforward.
A former judoka, she represented India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games before competing in kurash at the 2023 Asian Games. She then switched disciplines again and became a Jiu-Jitsu world champion in 2024.
She subsequently stepped away from competitive sport, only to return after encouragement from friends and embark on yet another challenge — MMA.
The comeback brought its own obstacles, including a knee injury, but Tariyal persevered to earn her place in India's Asian Games squad.
On Sunday, she showed the composure of an athlete accustomed to combat on different platforms, defeating Baigalmaa 2-0 to move into the last four and secure a historic medal.
Tariyal will now return to action in the semifinals on Monday, with a place in the gold-medal bout at stake.
For an athlete whose career has crossed judo, kurash, Jiu-Jitsu and now MMA, the medal is another milestone in an extraordinary combat-sport journey.
For Indian MMA, however, Tariyal's achievement is even bigger — she has become the first Indian athlete to put the sport on the Asian Games medal table.
UNI BDN
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