Exclusive | ‘My parents didn’t want another girl, they left me to die’: First Indian to win UFC fight Puja Tomar | MMA News

Puja Tomar (Instagram Photo)

NEW DELHI: A small village, Budhana, in Uttar Pradesh was wrapped in an unfamiliar aroma of festivity. People turned up in numbers. Puja Tomar had become a queen overnight. Garland after garland was placed around her neck, flower petals showered down on her, and everyone pushed forward, eager for a handshake. It was as if she was a national hero. But, wasn’t she?
In June last year, Puja became the first Indian to win a UFC bout, beating Brazil’s Rayanne Amanda dos Santos in a razor-close split decision.
For her, this wasn’t just a fight won in an octagon — but a fight that began the day she was born.
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“My parents didn’t want me,” Puja tells TimesofIndia.com, not with bitterness, but a quiet defiance. “When I was born, my father fainted. They had already decided not to raise a third daughter. I was left in a pot, to die.”
Puja Tomar was born in the village near Muzaffarnagar, where the value of a girl was often weighed against the eventual dowry.
Her two elder sisters, Anjali and Anu, were already defying the odds: one became a nurse, the other an MBBS doctor. But Puja? She was the one nobody wanted.
“I always felt I had to prove something. Not just to my family, but to the world. That a girl isn’t a burden.”

Her earliest heroes, nevertheless, were not athletes or politicians — they were the likes of Jackie Chan and the characters she saw on grainy YouTube videos.
However, she didn’t watch them for entertainment. She watched to learn. By 12th grade, a local karate teacher came to her school. And that was all she needed.
One day, in a karate match, seven-year-old Puja, always eager to throw a punch at boys, hit an opponent so hard they passed out. She was immediately disqualified.
“This sport isn’t for you — try something else,” she laughs. “But it felt like I was in a movie — like Jackie Chan. I just knew I wanted to fight.”
“I started off just wanting to beat boys up, but eventually realised this could be a proper sport,” she adds.
With Puja needing more freedom than karate could offer, her real break came through Wushu, a martial art that combines grace and combat.
With her uncle’s help, she found her way to SAI Bhopal. She spent five years there, sharpening her craft.
But when she was offered a job as a constable after years of training, it felt like an insult.
“After everything, a constable’s job? I couldn’t accept that,” she says. “And my sister was in MBBS. She needed money. That’s when I heard about MMA.”
No contracts. No pay. No guarantee. She fought anyway. Eventually, in Delhi, someone offered her money to fight. She said yes — not for fame, but to pay tuition fees.
From there, the 31-year-old puncher has now reached a point where she can easily spend around Rs 1.5 to 2 lakhs a month on her MMA team.
Off the mat, she sketches. Her wall is covered in drawings and craftwork. “My hobbies are completely opposite of fighting,” she says, grinning. “But I love it. It keeps me grounded.”
She prays before fights — not to win, but to find clarity. Her training is brutal: two sessions a day, strict diet, intense drills. “Sometimes, the training is so hard I can’t even sleep. But I know it’s what it takes.”
Her coach, Mike, helped her train through an ankle injury that delayed her upcoming fight. Now, she’s set to face Ireland’s Shauna Bannon on March 22 at UFC Fight Night 254.
“I’m mentally ready,” she says. “This is going to be a big year. My goal is to reach the top. I know I can bring the belt home.”
Before her fight in Louisville, a Japanese interviewer asked her bluntly: “Do you really think Indian fighters can do anything outside cricket?”
It stung.
“I just smiled,” she says. “Because I wanted to show that India is not just cricket. We have fighters, too.”
On June 8, 2024, she did just that. With a flurry of calculated strikes, relentless pressure, and heart, she edged out Santos in a historic decision. It wasn’t just her win, it was India’s.
Back in her village, people wept in joy. Her mother now walks around proudly saying, “That’s my daughter.”
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“My mom is proud and always excited to talk to the media,” she adds.
Her sisters — one in scrubs, the other in a white coat — cheered louder than anyone.
Puja never got to prove herself to her father — he passed away before she could. But in every punch, in every takedown, in every minute of every round, she carries that fire.
“When I got older, my mom told me that when I was born, my dad fainted. They had kept me aside to let me die because they didn’t want another girl,” she confesses. “But when I cried, my mom pulled me out of that pot and decided to save me. I always carried that pain. I never imagined he (father) would pass away, but I always wanted to prove to him that the girl who made you faint, she’s capable of so much.”