From Wushu Mats to the Octagon
Long before she became a headline name in mixed martial arts, Puja Tomar was known in Indian combat sports circles for a different discipline entirely. Born on 25 December 1993 in Budhana, a small town in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, Tomar first made her name in wushu, eventually representing India at the World Wushu Championship. It was there that she developed the sharp kicks and quick footwork that would later become her signature inside the octagon.
Her path into competitive fighting was not an easy one. Tomar has spoken publicly about the resistance she faced pursuing combat sports as a young woman in rural India, including scepticism from relatives who questioned whether the sport was appropriate for a girl. She has credited her mother and sisters with standing firmly behind her through that period, support that proved decisive in keeping her career alive before it had properly begun.
A Difficult Start to Professional Life
Tomar’s professional record did not open with the kind of momentum that suggested a future UFC breakthrough. She began her career with the Super Fight League before signing with ONE Championship, the Singapore-based promotion, where her run between 2017 and 2020 produced a difficult 1-4 record, including an unsuccessful venture into Muay Thai competition. It was, by any measure, a rocky stretch, one that could easily have derailed a fighter with less resolve.
Rather than retreat from the sport, Tomar rebuilt her career from the ground up on India’s domestic circuit. Competing for Matrix Fight Night, she went undefeated across four fights and captured the promotion’s strawweight championship with a TKO victory over Bi Nguyen in 2022. That title run reversed her fortunes entirely, restoring her position as one of the sport’s most closely watched Indian prospects.
A Historic Signing, Then a Historic Win
Carrying a nine-fight winning streak and a 9-4 professional record into her next opportunity, Tomar signed with the UFC in October 2023, becoming the first Indian-born woman to join the promotion. Fighting under the nickname “The Cyclone” and training out of Soma Fight Club in Bali, Indonesia, she joined a small cohort of Indian fighters, including lightweight Anshul Jubli, competing on the UFC roster at the time.
Her promotional debut came against Brazil’s Rayanne dos Santos in the women’s strawweight division at UFC Louisville on 8 June 2024. Tomar dominated the opening round with sharp body kicks, before dos Santos rallied to take the second, setting up a decisive third round. When the judges’ scorecards were read- 30-27, 27-30, 29-28- Tomar had won by split decision, becoming the first Indian fighter of either gender to win a bout inside the UFC. Dos Santos publicly disputed the scoring afterwards, alleging bias from one of the judges, but the controversy did little to diminish the historical significance of the result. Tomar later described the win as deeply emotional, both for herself and for Indian mixed martial arts as a whole. She returned home to a hero’s welcome, greeted at the airport by fans who lifted and danced with her in celebration.
Back-to-Back Setbacks
The period since that breakthrough has proven considerably more difficult. In her second UFC appearance, against Shauna Bannon at UFC London on 22 March 2025, Tomar was submitted by armbar at the 3:22 mark of the second round, handing her the first loss of her UFC career and dropping her record to 1-1.
Her most recent outing brought a further setback under especially high-profile circumstances. Tomar headlined a Road to UFC Season 5 card against China’s Shi Ming at Galaxy Arena in Macau on 29 May 2026, in a bout billed as a showcase between the two countries’ emerging mixed martial arts scenes. Shi Ming, a fighter balancing a growing following with ongoing medical studies, controlled the fight from the opening exchanges, taking Tomar down before securing an arm-triangle choke submission just 3 minutes and 12 seconds into the first round. The defeat left Tomar with back-to-back submission losses, dropping her UFC record to 1-2 and her overall professional mark to 9-6.
Still the Reference Point for Indian MMA
Despite the recent skid, Tomar’s standing in Indian sport remains largely unaffected. She is the fighter who moved Indian mixed martial arts from the margins of the country’s sporting conversation into a genuine UFC headline story, and the first fighter from the country, regardless of gender, to convert that opportunity into a win once it arrived.
Her career has followed anything but a straight line: a difficult start with ONE Championship, a title-winning reset on the domestic circuit, a historic UFC breakthrough, and now a stretch of adversity against two dangerous submission specialists in the strawweight division. Fighters with far longer résumés have weathered similar rough patches without their broader legacy being defined by them.
Still training out of Soma Fight Club in Bali and carrying a public profile larger than any Indian fighter before her, Tomar remains the sport’s most closely watched figure in the country — and the benchmark against which every future Indian UFC hopeful will inevitably be measured.
References:
- WION. “Uttar Pradesh’s Puja Tomar becomes first Indian to win a UFC fight, beats Brazil’s Rayanne by split decision,” June 9, 2024.
- Fightomic. “Puja Tomar: The Story of the First Indian Woman to Win in UFC,” May 2026.
- Sportskeeda. “UFC brass issues statement on first female Indian fighter Puja Tomar making history inside octagon.”
- Sportskeeda. “WATCH: Anshul Jubli’s ecstatic reaction as fellow Indian MMA fighter Puja Tomar makes history in UFC.”
- Sportskeeda. “Watch: Puja Tomar receives hero’s welcome and is honoured upon returning to her home village in India after UFC debut win.”
- Sportskeeda. “Rayanne dos Santos cries foul on judge who scored 30-27 in favour of Puja Tomar.”
- Wikipedia. “Puja Tomar.”
- LowKick MMA. “Shi Ming Sends Macau Crowd Into Frenzy As She Chokes Out Puja Tomar,” May 29, 2026.
- LowKick MMA. “Road To UFC Queen Shi Ming Draws Puja Tomar For Strawweight Showcase In Macau,” March 31, 2026.
- Athlon Sports. “Viral Chinese UFC Fighter Shi Ming Finally Gets Another Win With First-Round Submission,” May 29, 2026.
- Yahoo Sports. “Video: Ming Shi quickly finishes Puja Tomar in Road to UFC main roster headliner,” May 29, 2026.
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