India, Sept. 20 -- India's Mixed Martial Arts fighter Varun Sanyal was forced to withdraw from the Asian Games without competing after exhaustion and dehydration caused him to pass out during a sauna session at his cruise ship accommodation here, officials said on Sunday.

The 27-year-old was trying to cut weight ahead of his men's traditional 77kg quarterfinal bout when the incident occurred. He was subsequently declared medically unfit to compete.

"Fortunately, he was found in that state by an athlete from Nepal who woke him up. Varun was able to call me and we took him to hospital," MMA Sports Federation of India president Nikhil Kunder told PTI.

"There was nothing to be worried about. He was brought back to the cruise ship around 3:...