MMA star Mukesh Choudhary ‘Gora’ carves his niche in the sports world

Mixed Martial Arts or MMA is an active, yet dangerous sport, which has been gaining popularity in India as well. This full combat sport requires its proponents to be agile and active all the time and one such sportsperson who realizes this very well is Mukesh Choudhary. Born and brought up in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Mukesh is a trained MMA fighter but before that he is a national-level player in two other sports, Wushu and Kickboxing. For both the sports, he has earned a good number of gold, silver and bronze medals across competitions in India and abroad.

For MMA, fighters can incorporate any fighting technique, and that is why it is called a Mixed sports.However, the two players fighting each other may or may not be following the same fighting style. While one may use Wushu, the other may want to go with kickboxing. MMA is often referred to as ‘cage-fighting’ too because it is fought inside a closed ring, and marked with striking, grappling and ground fighting between the opponents.

Mukesh Choudhary is one of the best MMA fighters in India today. He has represented India in MMA fighting competitions worldwide. A welterweight champion, Mukesh Choudhary,is today more popularly known as ‘Mukesh Gora’ owing to his popularity among his fans.

The history of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) dates back to the Olympics held in ancient Greece. It originated as a hand-to-hand combat, performed as a sport called “Pankration”, derived from the Greek words ‘pan’ and ‘Kratos’, meaning “all powers.” This art of controlled fighting has been passed through many ancient cultures and it reached the Indian shores first with Alexander the Great, who was in the habit of recruiting athletes as soldiers, owing to their physical strength and knowledge of physical combat.

There are 9 weight classes in MMA, which are – 1.    Flyweight (up to 125 lb / 56.7 kg),2.    Bantamweight (up to 135 lb / 61.2 kg),3.   Featherweight (up to 145 lb / 65.8 kg),4.    Lightweight (up to 155 lb / 70.3 kg),5.    Welterweight (up to 170 lb / 77.1 kg),6.    Middleweight (up to 185 lb / 83.9 kg),7.    light heavyweight (up to 205 lb / 93.0 kg),8.    Heavyweight (up to 265 lb / 120.2 kg), and9.    super-heavyweight with no upper weight limit.