‘Eve-teasing’ at 12 sparked Suchika Tariyal’s journey to Asian Games medal

At 12, an incident of eve-teasing left Suchika Tariyal with a simple thought: 'I wanted to learn how to fight'.

Twenty-four years later, that decision has taken the 36-year-old from judo mats in Haryana to the Asian Games podium, where she assured India of its first MMA medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games by beating Mongolia’s Altanchimeg Baigalmaa 2-0 to enter the semifinals of the women’s Traditional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) 60kg event here on Sunday.

The semifinals at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Centre here on Monday will give Tariyal a chance to turn her assured bronze into a gold.

A place in the last four guarantees a medal, with both losing semifinalists receiving bronze.

“It’s great to have assured one medal for the country. It’s time for me to give that fight for a gold medal tomorrow,” Tariyal said after her victory.

The Women’s Traditional MMA 60kg combines striking, takedowns, grappling and ground fighting, with athletes competing in the under-60kg category.

The winner is decided by points, submission or stoppage, and reaching the semifinals guarantees a medal, with both losing semifinalists receiving bronze. It is making its Asian Games debut at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.

Tariyal's remarkable journey

It's another landmark moment for Tariyal in a career that has stretched across judo, jiu-jitsu and MMA.

“I had a dream from childhood that I would learn some kind of fighting, so I chose judo. That journey has brought me here. It’s like perfecting the base to go to the next level, and judo has helped me a lot with that,” she said.

Her journey began in Rohtak, Haryana, where she grew up in a modest and conservative family.

After the eve-teasing incident at the age of 12, she took up judo as a means of self-defence.

She first trained at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and later at the Dada Dev Mandir Centre in Palam before honing her skills at SAI Bhopal.

Getting into competitive sport was not easy, with her family initially having reservations about the challenges and travel involved for a girl competing away from home.

Tariyal eventually built an impressive judo career, competing for India in more than 20 international events and becoming an eight-time national champion.

She won gold at the 2019 Commonwealth Judo Championships and the 2019 South Asian Games, besides taking silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Judo Championships.

She represented India at several Asian Judo Championships and competed in the women's 57kg category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she narrowly missed out on a podium finish.

Judo to jiu-jitsu

Tariyal moved into jiu-jitsu and reached the top of that sport too, winning gold in the Adults Ju-Jitsu Contact Female 63kg category at the 2024 JJIF Ju-Jitsu World Championships.

Her MMA journey had actually started much earlier, with a debut victory in 2017, but she then took a seven-year break while continuing to compete successfully in judo and jiu-jitsu.

She returned to professional MMA in 2024, signing a multi-fight contract with BRAVE Combat Federation in the women's strawweight division. She made her professional comeback at BRAVE CF 92 in Bahrain in December 2024 and won.

The transition to MMA has continued to test her. She won gold at the first and second MMA-SFI National Championships and followed that with bronze medals at the third and fourth Asian Mixed Martial Arts Championships in January and May 2026.

Her Asian Games preparation included a six-week camp in Mumbai under coaches Nikhil and Sushobhan.

“When I was travelling and faced difficulties in Mumbai traffic, my coaches would wait for me to come and finish my training. They kept full attention and kept on perfecting my techniques. My fellow teammates and sir supported me well and ensured that I didn’t sustain any injury in the buildup,” she continued.

Tariyal said her approach against Baigalmaa was built around the same fundamentals she has developed through years of combat sports.

“I just planned my game as per my coach’s instructions. My game plan will be the same going forward -- same takedown, ground and pound, and then on the ground, finish the fight through a submission or lock. That’s the strategy going forward as per my sir’s instruction,” she said.

Against Baigalmaa, ranked 92nd in the Eurasia region, Tariyal executed that plan to win 2-0 and move into the last four.

“It took me a lot of time to reach here. There is a lot of hard work -- first judo, then other games and now MMA. It’s a new game, totally new mixed martial arts,” she said.

Alongside her sporting career, Tariyal has also served the country as a CISF head constable before joining the Haryana Department of Sports as a junior coach. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Bridge Desk. It is published from a syndicated feed)