As she continues to win titles, Pooja Tomar is hailed as the MMA scene’s next big thing in India. Her most recent exploits occurred on July 1 at the Noida Indoor Stadium during the Matrix Fight Night 12, when she competed on the Main Card against Russian Anastasia Feofanova. The 25-year-old had to work hard to get here in a nation where female competitors in combat sports are still comparatively uncommon, and now she has the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities to a global audience. When Tomar was a young child, his martial arts training began in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, where he was raised. defended her Strawweight title by triumphing over her Russian opponent Anastasia Feofanova in the first-ever all-women’s main event of Matrix Fight Night at Noida Indoor Stadium.
Early in her youth, Puja Tomar began to think that the best way to become better at beating up boys was to follow Jackie Chan’s lead and master her martial arts. There was some repressed aggression that needed to be released, which contributed to the need to beat them up. But it primarily resulted from the urge to defend her mother, two sisters, and herself.
Tomar was yet another girl kid in a large family that placed a high value on the child’s biological sex. For the majority of her life, this patriarchy was the cause of most of her suffering. Another factor contributing to her sense of responsibility was the passing of her father when she was just six years old. Tomar eventually matured into a combat-tested fighter out of necessity.
When someone bothered or teased my sister for having a disability with her leg, I used to become incredibly upset, Tomar recounted to Scroll. “It was just the three of us. “I had begun hitting the boys over that. I used to watch Jackie Chan films when I was younger, and I believed I could steal some of his stunts and use them to my advantage against these boys. I simply gravitated towards martial arts then over time.
She was a multi-medal winner in both karate and taekwondo in addition to being a five-time national wushu champion. She quickly rose to become one of Indian mixed martial sports’ most recognisable faces.
So much so that the Muzaffarnagar native, who will defend her title on July 1 against Russia’s Anastasia Feofanova, is the current strawweight champion in the Matrix Fight Night.
The main push, both professionally and psychologically, came when she started competing professionally, despite the fact that the environment is very different now. Tomar did not hesitate to acknowledge that she did not start practising MMA out of interest, curiosity, or love for the sport but rather as a result of a string of tragic circumstances. She thought her mental toughness helped her become one of the best MMA fighters. She ascribed it to the sport’s inherent character as well as the struggles she had to face in her personal life.
“The kind of grief I’ve experienced in life has made me tough,” she claimed. “When I think back on how my mother had to handle the situation at home after my father passed away, the current issues seem very minor.” With those ideas, I grew stronger. Toh ye toh kuch nahi hai, phir life mein jab itna kuch jhel sakte hain. This is nothing when you have been through so much in life.
You never know where you’re going to get a hit or a kick in mixed martial arts, she continued. In wushu, I never felt that under pressure. I believe that once you have participated in MMA, you cannot feel intellectually unprepared for anything in life.
