Gurdarshan Mangat hopes a family tragedy will spur him on to become the first-ever Indian MMA fighter to hold a major world title. He meets Stephen Loman on the main card of Brave 9: The Kingdom of Champions, on November 17th, with the inaugural Bantamweight belt on the line, but he has revealed he was close to pulling out of the bout. However, “St. Lion” remained focused on the task at hand in order to put Indians on the map in MMA.

Family tragedy motivating Mangat

Mangat lost his grandmother right at the beginning of camp but said his wife’s support has enabled him to isolate himself from the grief and focus on training for Brave 9.