Flying the Flag High: How MMA Star Ahmed Mujtaba is Making Pakistan Proud

Mixed martial artist, Ahmed Mujtaba has a lot to be proud of. Realizing his dream of becoming an MMA fighter, his achievements in the worlds of grappling and mixed martial arts, and sharing the circle with some of the best MMA talent on the planet at ONE Championship are some of his greatest achievements.

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However, the 29-year-old fighter sounds most proud when he talks about giving back to his people and training a new generation of Pakistani martial artists.

“If I talk about myself, I’m trying to share my knowledge, my expertise with these guys, and you know it’s for the love of the sports. That’s how it is because whatever you learn, you have to pass it on to your generations, so that’s how it is,” Mujtaba said.

Mujtaba is currently getting ready to make his long-awaited return to ONE Championship at the event ONE 163 this Saturday, 19 November. His last fight at ONE was a memorable one, in which he knocked out India’s Rahul Raju after only 56 seconds.

Considered one of Pakistan’s finest MMA fighters, Mujtaba had a meteoric rise to stardom. Mujtaba grew up in Quetta, Pakistan. He was the son of a teacher who had ambitions of becoming a doctor. However, he excelled at the martial arts since he was young, and he was driven to succeed in combat sports – while also studying computer science at the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (otherwise known as BUITEMS).

I had my first amateur fight within the first three weeks of my training. I literally had to beg coach Ehtisham [Karim] and coach [Ali] Sultan as they would not allow me. Long story short, I wont via knockout in four seconds.

From then on, it was one success after another for Mujtaba.

In 2012 – two years after starting his mixed martial arts training – he stepped inside Islamabad’s Fight Fortress. In 2013, he made his MMA debut at Pak Fight Club, defeating Nadeem Sharif. Eight months later, he defeated Ahmed Abbas. In the next three years, he would master both MMA and grappling, winning gold, silver, and two bronze medals in the Pakistan Grappling Championship before capturing the UGB MMA featherweight title after less than two minutes of the first round. In 2016, he signed for ONE Championship, making a winning debut against Singaporean Benedict Ang via unanimous decision.

After becoming an iconic figure of MMA in Pakistan, Mujtaba now looks at the big picture, aiming to contribute to the sport’s growth in his homeland. MMA has seen a huge growth in Pakistan, thanks in big part to fellow ONE fighter Bashir Ahmad, the first Pakistani to compete in MMA at an international level, who laid the foundations of the sport and conducted the first fighting events with his arrival in Pakistan in 2007.

“It is growing very, very fast,” Mujtaba said. “Bashir Ahmad came with a vision. He succeeded and he represented us. We all followed his footsteps.”

Back when Mujtaba started, MMA fighters faced big hurdles – and he now considers his responsibility as a son of Pakistan to support fighters by spreading more awareness of the sport.

There was no money, not a single penny in most of the pro events. Out of all of my fights in Pakistan, I only got paid once. The same case with every other fighter in the country,” Mujtaba explains. “We struggled to get to training, and then we struggled to finance our trips to compete in events where we were not paid. It is so heartening to see things change now. But back then, it was just us and our coaches, struggling with every paisa.

Now that Mujtaba, 29, is regarded as an idol and inspiration to young MMA talent in Pakistan, he is keen on giving back to his community, and spreading the martial arts lifestyle to his compatriots.

“So, I came back to the gym, Pak Fight Club, and there I started training guys, you know. Most of the guys fought after two months of my training, each of the guys won the fights in the first round and they got the fastest knockouts in Pakistan,” he said.

“I’m teaching those guys, I’m sharing my knowledge, I’m sharing my expertise with them, and I’m trying to get some more champions from Pakistan,” he continued.

Mujtaba, who faces Amorim this Saturday at ONE 163, sounds confident ahead of the highly anticipated clash in Singapore.

“I don’t care if he wants to wrestle, I’ll wrestle him. If he wants to do striking, I will strike with him. If he wants to do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I’ll do BJJ. I’m ready in every aspect of this art because I’ve been training for a very long time and I feel that energy inside of me and I just can’t wait for the date of the fight,” he said.

Mujtaba says cannot wait to meet his fans in Singapore – and adds he would love to see ONE Championship events in Pakistan – and has backed Pakistani MMA talents to shine in the future.