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Asian Games 2026| MMA bronze medallist Suchika Tariyal: I felt cheated, but my country’s love made me feel like a champ
The country’s first-ever MMA medallist, Suchika Tariyal, reflects on her dramatic semi-final bout and why judo as a sport needs more support.
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She won India a piece of sporting history and yet cried inconsolably. Meet Suchika Tariyal, 36, who stood at the podium of the ongoing Asian Games in Japan holding a bronze medal, and upon realising that it’s India’s first-ever MMA medal at the competition she couldn’t control the tears rolling down her cheeks.
Hours before winning bronze for this Rohtak-born’s dream of making it to the final had ended somewhere between a judges’ table and a weighing scale. Her 60kg semi final against Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo went to overtime, with judges initially ruling in Teo’s favour. India protested, the panel reviewed the footage and rescored it a draw, but under IMMAF rules a draw is broken by the morning weigh-in. Her opponent, roughly 700 grams lighter, walked away with the win and a place in the final.
“In that moment, I went down crumbling to the ground because I felt cheated. I felt my dream was snatched from me and I felt they conspired against me to have my opponent win. But then it started to hit me that what I had achieved was the only thing I had been craving to win my entire life, that is a medal for India,” shares Suchika.
It was the love of her country that carried her through the moments of disappointment as she recounts: “Mera desh mujhe shaabaashi de raha hai, mere pe garv kar raha hai, toh mujhe aisa lag raha hai ki haan maine bahut achha khela. Uske baad kya decision hui, usse mujhe dukh toh hai, par mere liye ye matter karta hai ki maine apne deshwaasiyon ke dil mein ek jagah toh bana hi li hai, desh ke liye pehle MMA medal jeeta hai.”
A Judoka since the age of 12, MMA found her late just three years back. “I always had this dream to win a medal for India but after a point gave up on it when I got a job in the Haryana Sports Department as a Judo coach because I thought that this is now my life and I was content with it. Then one day, Pooja Tomar (UFC fighter from India) told me to try MMA, and it all changed from there. I always had the fighting mentality and strength, it just needed direction and training,” she adds.
Yet there’s one thing that still disappoints her: the system that hasn’t caught up to talented individuals like her. “I hope my medal brings a change and inspires us as a nation to back more sports. India has immense talent in MMA, but sometimes there is no incentive to take up the sport as a career for a young talented kid. One needs to fund themselves, financially take up all of one’s responsibility, and often end up giving up dream to play the sport (for challenges often overcome talent). But I was lucky that I made it through all these challenges. I want more young kids to be backed. If there is an incentive, if the youngsters taking up a sport can be given job security on the side, there will be no added pressure to make ends meet. That is when we as a nation will get more champions who will be winning medals across different sports.”
