Kathmandu, May 29 -- It was a match thousands of Nepalis who grew up hearing stories of Gurkha bravery were looking forward to. A Nepali man from remote Bajhang had been stunning the MMA world by beating one opponent after another. When he knocked out India's previously unbeaten champion, Chungreng Koren, in August last year, he became the first Nepali to claim an international MMA title. He then became a household name in the country slowly getting familiar with MMA.

"Mero kadhma chha Nepal ko bojh," the rapper Vyoma had sung a month before that fight in the song titled 'Dhant Shot'. "Hami baseko ho Gorkhali aama ko kokh." [I'm shouldering the whole Nepal's burden. We were born from Gorkhali mothers' wombs.]

Rabindra Dhant's next stop ...