Suchika Tariyal made history by winning a bronze medal in mixed martial arts (MMA) in the women’s traditional 60kg event at the Asian Games 2026 on Monday.
With MMA making its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya 2026, Suchika became the first Indian to compete in the combat sport at the continental showpiece.
The 36-year-old Indian fighter went down 2-0 to Singapore’s Teo Hui Hoon after a close semi-final at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center that needed an additional one-minute period to separate the two fighters.
Both losing semi-finalists receive medals in MMA, with no separate bronze-medal playoffs at the Asian Games.
Suchika Tariyal had already assured herself of a medal on Sunday after beating Mongolia’s Altanchimeg Baigalmaa 2-0 in the quarter-finals.
A seasoned combat-sport athlete from Rohtak, Haryana, Suchika established herself in judo before expanding into Ju-Jitsu and MMA.
She is an eight-time national judo champion and won gold at the 2019 Commonwealth Judo Championships. Suchika also competed in the women’s 57kg judo event at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.
Suchika made her MMA debut in 2017 before taking a seven-year break from the sport while continuing to compete in judo, ju-jitsu and returned to professional MMA in 2024.
She arrived at the Asian Games having won a bronze medal at the Asian Mixed Martial Arts Championships earlier this year.
India had two representatives in MMA at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.
Varun Sanyal, entered in the men’s traditional 77kg event, was declared medically unfit before his quarter-final bout, ending his campaign without competing.
Sanyal suffered dizziness, lightheadedness, muscle cramps and dehydration while attempting to cut weight. He experienced the symptoms while restricting food and fluids, around 30 minutes after taking a sauna as part of his weight-cutting efforts. He was subsequently declared unfit by the doctor and could not compete in his scheduled bout.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/asian-games-2026-mma-india-suchika-tariyal-bronze-medal
