India is a country that has produced Olympic medal-winning wrestlers, world champion boxers, and many combat-sports stars. It is the motherland of akhadas that later also became home to many boxing hubs. However, there is still one arena where the Indian fighters are yet to make a name for themselves and accomplish something. It is the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) and stage of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s biggest MMA promotion.
It is getting harder to ignore the question here: Why a nation of over 1.4 billion people with an illustrious combat sports history not consistently producing top-tier MMA talent? To answer this question, Sports Now spoke with UFC fighter Anshul Jubli, MMA analyst and commentator Rahul Chhabra, and MMA analyst and matchmaker Prem Thakur.
Is the gap bigger in skill or infrastructure?
India should have produced plenty of elite MMA athletes by now as it is the country with a century-old wrestling tradition. Indian wrestlers dazzled at the Olympics, Worlds, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, while the country has also won boxing medals at the Olympics. Even in disciplines such as Wushu, Judo and Karate, the Indian athletes have consistently delivered great performances.
The question remains the same – if Indians can excel in wrestling, boxing, judo and other combat disciplines, why not MMA?
UFC fighter Anshul Jubli believes that the answer lies in culture and system, not the raw fighting ability that Indians possess.
“MMA is, in many ways, a combat sport whose culture does not yet exist in India. It is developing gradually, and I believe there will come a time when it suddenly takes off,” Anshul told Sports Now.
“Wrestling has a long-standing culture in India, which is why we produce good wrestlers. I think the country has had a wrestling culture for over 100 years, with the traditional akhada system deeply rooted in society. The same applies to boxing. Since India has been sending boxers to the Olympics for decades, boxing has developed a culture of its own. MMA, however, does not have that culture yet. We also need to understand that MMA is much more difficult than many other sports in in terms of career prospects,” he added.
Anshul said it is not about power or technique, but a cultural issue and lack of substantial support that is preventing Indians from doing well in MMA.
“If you’re a boxer, wrestler, badminton player, or involved in any sport that is part of the Olympics or Commonwealth Games, there is a good chance you can secure a government job. That itself becomes a huge source of motivation for athletes. In our sport, things are very different. Either fortune is on your side, and you become someone like Anshul Jubli or Pooja Tomar and make it to the UFC, or you struggle. Even after reaching the UFC, I can’t honestly say that I’ve received massive support from the government, businesses, or influential families. Still, we somehow manage to survive on our own,” he added.
MMA is yet to develop the institutional support, coaching systems, and official recognition that wrestling and boxing have for decades. A talented athlete can aspire to represent India, receive government assistance, land job through sports quotas, and establish a secure future. However, there is no such safety net in MMA. Many athletes are essentially forced into an all-or-nothing bet, Jubli noted. They either reach the highest levels of competition or quit the sport completely.
“The biggest issue is that there is nothing in between. Either you eventually leave the sport, or you work extremely hard and reach a major stage. There is no middle ground. That is not the case in wrestling or boxing. If you become a national champion even once, there is a good chance you will receive a government job. If a 16-year-old starts training and spends five years in the sport, reaches the age of 21, and still has no significant results, no Financial security, and sees little hope of earning a livelihood over the next five years, he is likely to give up. What we need is a system that ensures he does not give up—that he does not have to leave the sport,” Jubli said.
Building Fighters Without a Foundation
If there was one thing that almost everyone agreed upon, it was the infrastructure gap.
“We don’t have an infrastructure gap. We don’t have infrastructure at all,” MMA analyst and commentator Rahul Chhabra told this website.
According to Chhabra, organizers struggle to secure sanctioning, sponsorships and even basic resources such as cages for amateur events. That may sound dramatic, but it shows the reality of a sport that still operates outside of India’s mainstream sports system.
MMA lacks government-certified coaches, SAI programs, and institutional training facilities, unlike boxing or wrestling. Chhabra pointed to this anomaly and said one of the main obstacles keeping fighters from achieving world-class standards is the absence of certified coaching and sports science support.
“Unlike other Olympic disciplines, MMA does not receive any government funding and support. Since MMA is not fully integrated into that ecosystem, it lacks government facilities, coaches and development programs. Even organizers struggle to get event sanctioning, sponsors and basic equipment such as cages. As for skill, I don’t think that’s India’s biggest problem. We’ve consistently produced top athletes in wrestling, boxing and Wushu, which proves the talent exists. Skill can be. developed,” Chhabra said.
“The real issue is coaching and infrastructure. Sports like boxing, wrestling and judo have government-backed coaches, SAI programs and structured pathways. MMA has none of that. So if you ask me whether the bigger gap is skill or infrastructure, the answer is infrastructure. Indian fighters have the talent to compete at the highest level, but they need better coaching, facilities and support systems to get there,” he added.
The number of fighters seeking training overseas is one of the most obvious signs of the infrastructure gap. Ambitious Indian fighters seeking better coaching, assistance and sparring partners have turned to Thailand, Indonesia, Canada, the US, and even Dagestan. However, the majority of Indian fighters still lack the funds required to train abroad for several months.
Is There a Skill Gap?
MMA Analyst and Match-Maker Prem Thakur believes both skill and infrastructure are interconnected. Without infrastructure, athletes cannot consistently develop elite-level skills. Without skills, it becomes harder to attract investment and build infrastructure.
“The biggest reason is the lack of competition in the local circuit. Most of us train together, compete against each other and operate within the same environment. As a result, there isn’t enough high-level competition to consistently push fighters to the next level. We all know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, train at a similar level and have access to the same knowledge. Meanwhile, fighters come abroad from countries where MMA has been developing for 20-30 They have greater experience, deeper knowledge and access to a much larger pool of elite fighters,” Prem Thakur said.
Jubli’s personal experience supports the claim. He observed that nations like the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia had considerably more advanced coaching and structures scientific training methods, having trained both in India and abroad.
He stated that their fighters frequently arrive at the professional level with stronger defensive skills and cleaner basics because they come from a better-developed system. However, this does not imply that Indian athletes are less talented. It shows that they mostly have fewer resources by the time they get to the starting line.
“When you train and spar with international fighters, you immediately notice the difference in skill levels. Fighters from countries such as Russia, the United States, New Zealand and Australia come from MMA systems that have been established for decades. Some of those countries produced UFC champions as early as the early 2000s. Because of that, their coaching methods and training structures are far more scientific and refined,” said Jubli.
“People don’t often talk about systems in MMA, but the countries that have successfully developed the sport operate in a very structured way. Their fighters build such strong fundamentals that they are extremely sound defensively. By the time many of them turn professional, they are already polished and complete fighters. That’s where India still lags behind, because our MMA ecosystem is not yet as developed,” he added.
Indian fighters frequently face opponents who have spent years competing in a more powerful developmental system when they eventually make it to the UFC or Road to UFC. The end effect is a gap that shows up in the brightest lights.
Real Fight Lies Outside The Cage
So, is the infrastructure or skill gap greater? The evidence points to infrastructure as the solution. India has already shown its ability to develop elite fighters at the amateur level. It has not yet created a sustainable MMA ecosystem that can reliably find, nurture, and assist top talent in the country.
It is possible to teach a skill. It is also possible to create champions. However, even the most gifted fighters will find it difficult to realize their potential in the absence of qualified coaches, amateur pathways, financial stability, and elite competition. There are plenty of fighters in India. The system that transforms fighters into UFC champions is what it lacks.
India has already seen fighters such as Bharat Khandare, Anshul Jubli, Puja Tomar and Chungreng Koren break new ground. At one point, even reaching the UFC seemed impossible for Indian fighters, but slowly that barrier has been shattered.
