“The injuries, pain and sacrifices are all worth it when I have the Indian flag on my shoulders.”That is what keeps Owais Yaqoob going through the sleepless nights, the years of scraping by, and the long road out of Pulwama.
At 22, he is the first MMA fighter from Jammu and Kashmir to represent India on the world stage, and he walks into his next bout on the back of five straight wins. On August 1, he faces Bulgaria’s Delyan Georgiev, still unbeaten, at BRAVE CF 107, a fight that could push his career to a new high.
Yet ask Owais what a fight means to him, and the answer has little to do with the scorecard.
“For that one moment, I do everything. There are days when I cannot sleep because of pain, but I continue because I want to experience that moment. That feeling of representing my country is what motivates me,” he told Times Now Digital.
Roots In Pulwama
Owais grew up in Murran, a village in Pulwama in South Kashmir, where talk usually centred on cricket and football. Fighting, though, pulled at him long before either of those sports could.
“My grandfather used to do wrestling in his younger days. I always felt that I had the potential, but I wanted to find a professional and positive way to channel that energy,” he recalled.
He first walked into a local martial arts club in Kashmir in 2013 and signed up for Thang-Ta, an old Indian fighting art. Back then he knew almost nothing about combat sports. To him it was simply another discipline built on kicks, stretching and hard training. His family had no objections either, figuring it would at least keep him fit.
The pull only grew. Owais took up Taekwondo and Karate, trained at national camps, and stacked up 11 gold and six silver medals over the years that followed. From there, he crossed into amateur MMA, picking up wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing under coach Gurkaran Singh Sawhney at the Indian Top Team (ITT) Fight Club in Chandigarh. Fighting for ITT, he claimed several amateur national titles before landing a contract with Matrix Fight Night (MFN), the promotion backed by Tiger Shroff.
Fighting Against the Odds
None of it came easy. When his father fell ill in 2016, the job of holding the family together landed on Owais – and, in a strange way, decided his career for him.
“When I started MMA in 2017, my father was also unwell, and there was no one else to earn for the family. I felt MMA was the right path for me because I could build my career and also support my family,” he said.
The early years asked a lot. With competitions paying nothing, he did whatever work came his way just to keep training.
“Initially, there was no money in competitions. Instead, I had to spend money from my own pocket. I worked as a medical representative, gave fitness classes at gyms, worked in catering, went for apple picking and even did apple packing work. From 2017 to 2021, I kept investing in myself. My main focus was always fighting,” Owais said.
Slowly, the grind began to pay off, and sponsors stepped in to cover his training and diet. The turning point came when he earned a chance to train in Dubai with the team of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. What stayed with him was not any single technique, but the way Khabib thought about the sport.
“The biggest thing is his mindset. He has a warrior mentality, and he never gives up. His belief is that if you want something, you have to achieve it because there is no second option,” Owais said.
More Than Just a Fighter
Every time Owais fights abroad, he sees himself carrying more than his name into the cage – he carries his country, and, he hopes, a different picture of his home.
“Every year, when I fight internationally, my biggest responsibility is to represent India. I proudly raise the Indian flag because that is my representation of the country,” he said.
“Kashmir is much more than what is sometimes shown. You cannot judge an entire region because of the actions of a few people. There are many talented youngsters there who want to represent India and bring pride to the country,” he said.
He is just as firm that young athletes from rural Kashmir deserve better backing and facilities than they get.
“Pulwama is around 40 kilometres from Srinagar, but unlike Srinagar, there are very limited facilities. Even today, Pulwama does not have an indoor stadium. Coming out of such a place and reaching the international level shows that talent exists everywhere. Support does not always mean money; sometimes appreciation and encouragement are enough to motivate athletes,” he said.
With Georgiev now in front of him, Owais keeps his sights close and his idea of success wide open.
“My immediate focus is always my next fight. I want to win every fight and then think about the next opportunity. Whether I become a champion in BRAVE Combat Federation or UFC, I will be happy. Even if I do not become a champion, I will still be proud of what I achieved in life,” he said.