First from Northeast to compete in Road to UFC, Mridul Saikia looks to make most of pioneering feat

NEW DELHI: Regardless of the outcome of the contest, Mridul Saikia will be making history simply when he steps into the Octagon at the UFC Performance institute in Shanghai against China’s Agulalli on Thursday. The 26-year-old from Assam will be the first fighter from the North East of India to compete in the Road To UFC, a knockout tournament that provides a pathway for top MMA prospects from Asia to secure a contract in the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Should he win the competition, Mridul, who made the flyweight limit of 126 pounds on Wednesday, will become only the third active Indian fighter (RTU season 1 winner Anshul Jubli and Puja Tomar are the others) on the roster of the UFC - considered the most prestigious mixed martial arts promotion in the world.

Although he comes into the contest with a perfect 8-0-0 record with three wins by knockout and five by submission, Mridul will undoubtedly be an underdog in the contest. While Agulalli, his opponent, is only 19, he has amassed a 12-1-0 record and is considered one of the favourites to reach the final of the flyweight division.

But Mridul has a habit of overcoming the odds. “I’ve come this far already. I won’t give up that easily,” he says.

Born in Mirza, a settlement near Guwahati, Mridul grew up all over the northeast, where his father Mafizuddin, a pioneer with the Border Roads Organisation was posted. “My father’s job took him all along the international border and our family would stay with him.”

Work as a pioneer doesn’t pay a lot and Mridul’s father had six children to provide for. Even as a youngster, Mridul says he would pitch in where he could.

“I’ve done all sorts of jobs. I’ve worked in bakeries, shops and I’ve done manual labour where I’d break big stones into smaller ones for use in road building in Arunachal Pradesh,” he told.

Although his contributions helped, Mridul’s family wanted him to study. But if there was one thing Mridul says he enjoyed, it was fighting.

“Kung Fu movies and WWE (pro wrestling) are really popular in the the North East. I’d get into a few fights when I was in school but I always wanted to learn how to fight seriously,” he said.

He got his chance at the age of 17, when his family moved back to Guwahati. Although the move was ostensibly to help him study, Mridul found an MMA gym and started to train. His family largely wanted him to focus on his books, but Mridul found an unexpected ally in his mother.

“My gym was 35 kilometers from our home. She’d quietly give me 100 rupees in the morning so I’d be able to go and train,” he recalled. Agencies

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