Puja Tomar Record: 9-5-0

Making history in the UFC

Tomar arrived in the UFC carrying the weight of being the first Indian-born woman signed by the promotion. At UFC Fight Night in June 2024, she faced Brazil's Rayanne Amanda and edged a hard-fought split decision over three rounds – a result that made her the first Indian fighter ever to win a bout in the UFC, a genuinely historic milestone celebrated across India. The follow-up was tougher: in March 2025, again at UFC Fight Night, she ran into the surging Shauna Bannon, who caught her in a second-round armbar to hand Tomar a submission loss. The defeat underscored the recurring theme of her career – every one of her five professional losses to date has come by submission or ground-and-pound, the area opponents have most successfully targeted.

Fighting style

Tomar is a striker first and foremost, a product of her wushu background, and the numbers reflect it: six of her nine professional wins have come by knockout or TKO, giving her a finish rate around 67 percent, with no submission victories on her ledger. She fights with the aggression her nickname suggests, looking to pressure forward and land power shots, and her three decision wins show she can also grind out close rounds when the finish isn't there. Her clearest demonstrated vulnerability is on the canvas: four of her losses have come by submission, a reminder that her grappling defense remains the dimension most likely to be exploited by well-rounded opponents.

Career highlights

• First Indian fighter to win in the UFC — her June 2024 split-decision victory over Rayanne Amanda made her the first fighter from India to register a win inside the Octagon, a landmark moment for the sport in her country.
• Matrix Fight Night strawweight champion — she captured the promotion's inaugural women's strawweight title, cementing her status as India's most decorated female mixed martial artist before her UFC call.
• Knockout-heavy résumé — six of her nine career wins have come by KO/TKO, a roughly 67 percent finish rate built on the striking pedigree of a national wushu champion.