India, Aug. 1 -- India's MC Mary Kom has inspired generations of homegrown boxers, but the six-time world champion's influence has travelled well beyond the country's borders, reaching Pakistan's first female Commonwealth Games medallist, Fatima Zahra. It was after watching the film based on Mary Kom's life, which starred Priyanka Chopra, that a 10-year-old Fatima decided to become a boxer.

This week, the 22-year-old signed off with a historic bronze medal in the women's 60kg event at the Glasgow Games. This is the first medal in boxing at the Commonwealth Games by a Pakistani woman.

Growing up in Sargodha in Pakistan's Punjab province, Fatima had few female boxing role models to look up to in her own country. She instead found one acro...