Pakistani mixed martial artist Ahmed Mujtaba just defended his featherweight belt in Singapore by defeating the previously unbeaten Singaporean featherweight prospect Benedict Ang. The nickname ‘Wolverine’ was given to the new Pakistani MMA sensation due to his resemblance with the X-men character as well as the fact that he has never been defeated in any of his MMA fights. He also holds the position of silver medalist in the “Pakistan Grappling Challenge 2014” after defeating Waqar Umar fellow Pakistani MMA fighter.
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a developing sport in Pakistan, where Ahmed Mujtaba has risen as the superstar of the sport. By winning the featherweight championship belt in the ONE Championship match on 11th of November, he continued his winning streak of 8-0. The bout took place on the under-card of ONE: Defending Honor at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday. The fight lasted the whole three rounds, where Ahmed earned all three judges’ favor to win by unanimous decision.
Earlier this year, he defeated Filipino Neil Lorano,the local favorite in Philippines, to defend his Featherweight Belt in a match that lasted 1 minute and 8 seconds.
The passionate fighter missed a precious holiday like Eid with his family for the sake of his training. While talking about his training he said:
I was also interested in watching wrestling and my passion for the fight increased with passage of time, hence I started proper training of MMA in Islamabad. Now I am ranked 5th in Asia and I hold the best record of 8-0 in Pakistan, which is a high achievement in a sport like MMA.
Ahmed, belonging to Quetta is a student of Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS). He started his training back in 2010 at the suggestion of a friend. A major reason to start MMA training was the security conditions back in his city. He says he learnt MMA to gain patience, control and to find peace. Talking about his life experiences he said:
I grew up as the son of a teacher, I was an average kid. Not too wealthy, but not too poor. I always had a lot of extra energy in myself and was skinny. I lived in Islamabad, then moved into Quetta, which was a rough place and I had to toughen myself up. MMA is a mixture of all combat sports like boxing, JI-Jitsu, kickboxing, karate and this is the true spirit of it because it is the melting pot of all of them.
He called his university to be one of his biggest supports in his career, the young fighter said about his university:
My university BUITEMS has supported both the finances and the morale because of which I was able to continue my studies along with MMA.
Ahmed ‘Wolverine’ Mujtaba is certainly the future of mixed martial arts in Pakistan. He is a rising star with a very bright future and is expected to glorify MMA in the country.
