‘I’m late but I’ve got it’: Suchika Tariyal, when I told her she was too old, switched from judo, kurash and jiu-jitsu to Asian Games MMA bronze

The gym where Suchika Tariyal trains is modest: a single floor, a makeshift mat, a cage and the equipment needed to train for mixed martial arts. Owned by Vikas Dahiya, an MMA fighter himself. When Dahiya is out of town, Tariyal and her husband Kapil Hooda have the keys.The couple has invested so much in this place that it is more than just a training facility. It’s part of the routine they’ve organized their lives around, with Kapil keeping a close eye on his wife’s preparation and sharing the emotional highs and lows of her career.For years, this routine was built around a goal that kept slipping out of reach. Tariyal moved from one combat sport to another, facing obstacles in her choice and coming close to quitting more than once. The medal she chased since childhood finally came at the age of 36 when she became India’s first Asian Games medalist in MMA.“For me, it’s more than my life. Because I’ve had a dream since I was a kid that came true today. I mean, I got it late, but I got it. I’m very happy about it. I can’t believe I made it. I still can’t believe it. But I feel like I have to do more. That’s what I mean.”The bronze was a first for Indian MMA. However, Tariyal was still thinking about the finals she had missed. The semi-final against Singapore’s Hui Hoon Teo went to an additional round and was decided by a weight tiebreak. Tariyal was 700 grams heavier and missed the final.“But I missed the gold medal. I was very sad. I had planned to win the gold. But it didn’t happen. I’m very sad about that.”The disappointment was palpable. Her sports career was marked by moments when she was close to a breakthrough, only for circumstances to push her down a different path. Judo was her first sport, followed by kurash and jiu-jitsu before MMA gave her another shot at an Asian Games medal.

Suchika Tariyal

The medal also carried a memory of a time when she considered walking away completely.“Since childhood I had a desire that I made my life and I didn’t achieve – either the Commonwealth or the Asian Games or the Olympics. I wanted to win a medal. I wanted people to know about my fighting life or how I got here or how my family helped me get here.”A girl who wanted to learn to fightTariyal grew up in Chhawla, near Najafgarh in Delhi, one of four sisters. Her introduction to combat sports came not from a dream of winning medals or building an international career, but from an experience that left her vulnerable as a child.When she was around 12 years old and wearing a ‘boy cut’, she was touched inappropriately by a barber at a salon. She returned home without telling her family what had happened, scared and unsure of how to process the incident. The experience stayed with her and eventually shaped her decision to learn to defend herself.“The barber touched me badly. I felt very bad. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know why it happened to me.”“I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell my family. I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to play. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to learn the fight game so I could do it if it happened again.”Her mother eventually signed her up for judo. Tariyal wanted to learn boxing, but quickly took up judo.“I was crazy about it. I didn’t want to study or do anything. I just wanted to play judo. I wanted to give 100% in judo.”She became an eight-time national champion in judo. She won silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Judo Championships, gold at the 2019 edition and gold at the 2019 South Asian Games.Tariyal spent 15 years in judo and tried to qualify for the Olympics, but the Covid-19 pandemic derailed that effort. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, she lost the bronze medal match in the final seconds.The path to the Asian Games through judo has also become difficult. The grading requirements made the choice difficult, so she turned to Kurash, who offered another route.She trained for about a year and won the selection trials, but her name for the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou was not cleared until the final days before the competition.“Because of the two federations, we were left behind. I didn’t have my name on the list. Mr. Anurag Thakur was the sports minister at that time. He helped us a lot. He made us understand. He listened to us. I got my name at the last minute but I didn’t get enough training because we were running to clear our name.”She competed in kurash in Hangzhou but lost.Different sport, different startAfter leaving kurash, Tariyal took up jiu-jitsu and became world champion in 2024. However, this success did not guarantee a clear path forward, with recognition of the sport in India remaining an obstacle. MMA offered a different path and gave her a new opportunity to pursue the Asian Games medal she had long desired.

Suchika

Pooja Tomar and Himanshu Kaushik encouraged her to try the sport. Tomar is a trailblazer in Indian MMA: she became the first Indian woman to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in June 2024 and the first Indian fighter to win a promotion bout. Kaushik also guided Tariyal to sports.

MMA towel

Tomar’s presence is not limited to this early advice. He lives one floor above Tariyal and Kapil in their apartment complex on the outskirts of Gurugram. The proximity is part of a small circle around the fighter, a network of people who encouraged her to keep going when other routes closed.Due to her Judo background, she was comfortable with grappling, but needed to develop her striking. “I’m a grappler. I’ve done judo. It was hard for me. I wanted to learn the punches,” she said.She gradually worked on new skills, and this transition also opened the way to professional MMA. Tariyal signed a five-fight contract with the BRAVE Combat Federation and made her debut at BRAVE CF 92 in Bahrain in December 2024.The deal offered a way to continue competing professionally while she pursued an Asian Games journey. Tariyal said she was two matches into her contract with three left. Her judo also shaped her choice of traditional MMA for the Asian Games, where the use of the gi (judogi) and emphasis on grappling and throwing suited her strengths.Tariyal’s career has involved reinvention, and each change required her to adapt her training and start over, often with no certainty that the new discipline would yield the medal she wanted. But the setbacks weren’t just about results or injuries. As she grew older, she began to hear a different kind of criticism: that she was too old to continue.When they stopped asking for helpKapil, who works in Manesar, has seen how much Tariyal has given to the sport. She had a job and a home by the time they married, but years of chasing a big medal made her give up. Kapil urged her to continue even as the financial burden to sustain her career grew.

Suchika with husband Kapil

“My husband believed in me. I gave up. I was married and had a good job. I had a house and a husband. Then he believed in me that I could do it. ‘I saw you do it,'” Tariyal said.It costs money to maintain her career. She took unpaid time off work to train and compete, while overseas camps and travel had to be paid for with no guarantee of outcome.“He spent out of his own pocket, took out loans and trained me. He sent me to Bali. I went there three times, four times for two months. I have a job and when I go to training, I go unpaid. I don’t get paid. Whatever I needed, he spent.”Kapil approached people for financial help, but was repeatedly told that Tariyal was too old to continue. Finally he stopped asking and focused on what he could do on his own.Tariyal was also looking for ways to find sponsors. She appeared on a reality TV show during COVID-19, hoping the exposure would help fund training and competitions.“I thought if I did two to four events, maybe I could get a sponsor,” she said. “If I can get a sponsor, I will do it.However, she dislocated her elbow during one of the shows. The injury jeopardized her preparation for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Although she recovered in time to compete, she decided not to return to the reality show until she had achieved her sporting goals.“I have decided not to go on such reality shows until I achieve this. I have to focus on my work,” she said.Doubts about her age continued. Tariyal said she heard at training camps that she should step back and give younger athletes a chance.“A lot of people meet me and say you’re so old. You turned 30. You can’t play (sports),” she said. “We keep hearing in the camps that you’re too old. You shouldn’t be playing now. You should be out now. You should give a chance to the youngsters ahead of us. That’s what I’ve heard so many times.”Her response was to continue the competition. “As long as my body works or I want to play, I can play. And you saw that I won a medal,” she said. “The more demotivating people I met in my life, the more motivated I became.”When she moved into MMA, Tariyal said, the federation — MMA-SFI (Mixed Martial Arts Federation of India) — helped with training, food and other requirements and allowed her to use its gym without monthly fees.“I’ve never seen a federation like this,” she said.She credits Kapil for helping her stick with the sport long enough to reach the Asian Games podium. “I’d like to thank him. That’s why I got here. It was his dream that I made come true.”The 700 gramsIn Aichi-Nagoya, the pressure of the opening fight was clear for Tariyala. She admitted to her coach that she was scared, only for him to tell her that he felt the same way, but she believed she would do well.“I was very nervous at the time. I told my coach I was scared. He said, ‘It’s fair. You’re scared, so you’re telling the truth.’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m afraid.’ He said, ‘It’s okay, I’m scared too. But you will do well. I know you’ve been working very hard.'”She was focused on winning the quarter-finals and securing a medal. “I believed that I have to win this round. That’s the only way I can secure a medal. I played hard. I don’t know how I did in the first round. I was very upset. Will my body work or not? What performance will come? I played and I won. I was very happy.”

Suchika as the first Indian athlete to win a medal at the Asian Games in mixed martial arts (MMA)

The victory secured her a bronze. A semifinal tiebreak kept her from the final by 700 grams. At the age of 36, Tariyal finally won the Asian Games medal she had wanted since childhood.For now, Tariyal is focused on the World Championships in November. She will travel to Mumbai to prepare for the event while the remaining two bouts for her BRAVE Combat Federation contract remain on the back burner.