Who is Owais Yaqoob? Jammu & Kashmir’s rising MMA star

Jammu and Kashmir’s mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Owais Yaqoob has left a mark on the international stage after a statement win at BRAVE CF 107 recently. Yaqoob stopped Delyan Georgiev in the first round which highlights his growing reputation in the sport.

Georgiev is a training and sparring partner of UFC star Ilia Topuria making the victory memorable and crucial for the Indian fighter.

Yaqoob was born in 1998 at Murran village in Pulwama and started his martial arts journey with taekwondo and kickboxing around 2012. He won over dozen national medals across different martial arts disciplines before moving into MMA.

He also founded the Lion’s Den Martial Arts Academy in Pulwama in 2015. The academy has trained more than 200 young athletes and continues to support local talent.

Yaqoob made his professional MMA debut in 2023 at MFN 11 in New Delhi but there he suffered a third-round submission loss. He then responded by improving his wrestling and ground game and travelled to Dagestan, Russia, for training. He trains under the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov and Javier Mendez at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) and is an official member of Team Khabib.

His hard work helped him win series in Kazakhstan and China before becoming the first fighter from Jammu and Kashmir to compete and win under BRAVE Combat Federation.

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