Meet Pakistan's first and only international female mixed martial arts practitioner
Five seconds into the fight, Anita Karim — who had stepped on to the octagonal mat for the very first time after only one year of training — confidently landed her left hand on her opponent’s face, throwing the experienced Nyrene Crowley off balance.
The far more experienced Kiwi fighter was taken by surprise. She spent the entire first round defending herself against Anita’s powerful strikes. It was in the final seconds of the initial round that Crowley came back to her senses and threw Anita on the floor. The inexperienced Anita found it a bit tough to fight on the floor. Her opponent exploited this, and got her in a rear choke in the second round. Anita lost the fight... but had made it abundantly clear that she was here to stay.
The first ever female mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter of Pakistan, who started practicing taekwondo at an early age in Hunza with her brothers, is not disheartened by the defeat. She is determined to learn from her mistakes and get back to the ring stronger to walk off as the winner one day.
“It was all about experience, they were not differently trained,” says Anita. “The jabs, the crosses and the kicks are all the same, it is just about implementing them. I have to focus a bit more on these things,” she says.
MMA is still a growing sport in Pakistan and not so popular among the female population of the country. Anita did not have a female companion to train with or to compete against, so she trained with her brother and other male practitioners of martial arts under the supervision of the well-known trainer, Ehtisham Karim. When she arrived in Islamabad from Hunza, she was given a choice between higher studies or a professional MMA career. She picked the latter, despite knowing the challenges.