Pulwama’s MMA fighter to face Afghan national in MFN 14
Pulwama: In Matrix Fight Night (MFN) 14, a young fighter from south Kashmir’s Pulwama district is set to face an opponent from Afghanistan in upcoming championship.
Owais Yaqoob, a resident of Murran Pulwama will face his opponent Mohammed Azim Mokhlis, a fighter from Afghanistan on March 9 at Noida Indoor Stadium.
Owais said that he was very passionate about martial arts since childhood and since 2013 he started taking part in competitions.
Notably, in 2013, in his first competition, he managed to bag a gold medal based on the basis of which he got the opportunity to represent J&K at national level where he won many medals.
“After playing at national level at various places, I joined mixed martial arts camps with different coaches in different states of India and won medals where I got an opportunity to represent the erstwhile state of J&K,” he added.
“I have won 11 gold medals at national level, six silver medals and 17 gold medals at state level and officials at All India Mixed Martial Art Federation had declared me as the second best mixed martial art player of India,” he added.
“Besides medals, based on my performance, I have received titles like ‘Best Fighter Boy’ in 28 states besides “Champion of Champions” in 2018 in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
Owais is the first professional MMA player from Kashmir who secured a place at Matrix Fight Night (MFN).
About the upcoming event, Owais said he is fighting under the lightweight category and he is working hard to perform well as this performance will help him to further record progress in this sport.
Importantly, Owais signed a three year contract with MFN in January, 2023 and made a professional debut on 31 March, 2023.
Owais says since 2015 he has taught over 200 youth the different forms of martial arts and among them many have represented J&K at the national level and even won gold medals.
He said that in order to stay away from drug and anti-social activities, there is a need to get youth involved in sports and martial arts and in order to teach the youth of Pulwama district and keep them away from drugs, he has even come up with an academy titled ‘Lion’s Den’.
Jahangeer Ganaie
