By Pratik Sagar
New Delhi, May 4 (IANS): Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) may already have caught the imagination of fans world over, but in India it's still at a nascent stage. Pooja Tomar is one such name who is waving the Indian flag high on the international arena since breaking onto the scene couple of years ago.
"I started my Pro MMA ONE Championship career in November 2017 and in January 2019, I won the fight against Indonesian star Priscilla Hertati Lumbangol who had won many fights earlier," Tomar told IANS.
"After this victory, I got the limelight in Indian MMA and became the first Indian to get the ranking on the international level platform."
The coronavirus pandemic has stalled her progress a bit, but Tomar is leaving no stones unturned to keep herself fit, both mentally and physically, in these tough and unprecedented times.
"It is a really tough time for everyone, but we need to fight together against COVID-19. I indulge in meditation for my mental fitness and workout everyday to keep my body fit.
"As I have a lot of free time at home, I try to keep myself busy in the kitchen helping my mom to cook and play video games usually. It is very hard to do MMA training in this lockdown period but I am trying my best at home. I am doing yoga, CrossFit, body weights and various exercises. All of this is going to help me in my performance but these options are not focused on MMA training," she added.
"Once the lockdown is over, I will need to put more effort and work hard on specific MMA training to recover lost training period."
UFC boss Dana White had announced earlier that he is looking to host an event on a unknown island outside the borders of USA. The idea is to host both domestic and international fights and it could be one of the first live events to be broadcast around the world in the post-lockdown era.
Tomar, who is a Steadfast Nutrition athlete for the last eight months, believes such an event can help popularise the sport in the country.
"After the lockdown, this is one big MMA event that will help to build the sport in the world and help in bringing it to a level of other famous sports like football and cricket," Tomar said.
"I am happy that MMA will be introduced to such a large number of Indian population who were not aware of this beautiful sport."