India, Sept. 23 -- Suchika Tariyal, 36, won India its first MMA medal at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan on Monday. Hours before clinching bronze in the 60kg category, her hope of reaching the final met a dead end after a disputed semi-final against Singapore's Hui Hoon Teo. The bout went into overtime, with judges initially ruling in Teo's favour. India protested, after which the panel reviewed the footage and rescored it as a draw. Under IMMAF rules, the draw was broken by the morning weigh-in. Teo, roughly 700gm lighter, advanced to the final. "In that moment, I went down crumbling to the ground because I felt cheated. I felt my dream was snatched from me, and I felt they conspired against me to have my opponent win. But then it started to hit me that what I had achieved was the only thing I had been craving to win my entire life, that is, a medal for India," shares Tariyal, who hails from Rohtak (Haryana). Her bronze helped ease the disappointment. "Mera desh mujhe shaabaashi de raha hai, mere pe garv kar raha hai, toh mujhe aisa lag raha hai ki haan maine bahut achha khela... desh ke liye pehla MMA medal jeeta." A judoka since 12, Tariyal took up MMA only three years ago. She had given up on her dream of winning a medal for India after joining the Haryana Sports Department as a Judo coach. "Then one day, Pooja Tomar (UFC fighter from India) told me to try MMA, and it all changed. I always had the fighting mentality and strength; it just needed direction and training,"Tariyal says. Yet the lack of support for the sport concerns her. "I hope my medal brings a change. India has immense talent in MMA, but sometimes there is no incentive to take up the sport as a career. If youngsters taking up a sport can be given job security on the side, there will be no added pressure to make ends meet. That is when we as a nation will get more champions," she ends....