Anshul Jubli

Some Lesser Known Facts About Anshul Jubli

• Anshul Jubli is an Indian lightweight Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter who became the first MMA player from India to win an event hosted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2023. He is also India’s second MMA player, after Bharat Khandare, to win a contract and join the UFC.

• Anshul Jubli’s affiliation with MMA began in 2015 when he was introduced to the combat sport by the elder brother of a friend.

• After completing his formal education, Anshul started preparing for the Combined Defence Services Examination (CDSE) in 2017. He managed to clear the written examination; however, he could not pass the Service Selection Board (SSB) tests. While preparing for the written examination, he started watching UFC videos and learned boxing at a gym as he believed that learning a combat sport would help him in the army. In an interview, he said that he and his friend used to watch UFC videos and tried to replicate the steps they saw in the videos. He further said that he was unable to undergo formal training for MMA because there were no MMA training institutes in Dehradun, where Anshul’s parents had settled. Talking about it, in an interview, he said,
  

  It was while preparing for the CDS that I and my friend came across the YouTube videos of Firas Zahabi, a renowned MMA coach, and John Danaher, a highly respected BJJ – and MMA instructor. We used study in day and would try to replicate the steps we learnt from the videos in the evening. This intrigued my interest in the sports even more.”

  Anshul, while preparing for the CDSE, met a retired colonel of the Indian Army, who motivated him to pursue a career in MMA.

• Anshul made his MMA debut at the amateur MMA competition Bodypower 2016: India Open MMA Championships against Harish Kumar and won.

• In 2017, Anshul participated in the BodyPower India Open MMA Championship and emerged victorious.

• In 2018, Anshul and his friend shifted to New Delhi, where they joined Crosstrain Fight Club (CFC), where he began training in various forms of martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing, and grappling with Siddharth Singh, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion. In an interview, Anshul said that he did not have a job; therefore, he had to borrow money from his friends and live in a one-room apartment with three other boys in Delhi.

• In 2018, he was invited to take part in The Shillong Cage Fighting Championship. His fight was cancelled after his opponent left the competition.

• In 2019, he participated in an MMA tournament in the Philippines, the tournament was cancelled after a fight broke out at the venue. In an interview, Anshul said that he had to borrow money from his friends at the CFC to participate in the competition. He further said that after the event was cancelled, he had made up his mind on quitting MMA due to monetary constraints. Talking about it, he said,
  

  Again, I ended up borrowing money from my close friends, who themselves were borrowing from other people,” he said, adding, “The event seemed well organised. I enjoyed a good face-off with my opponent before the fight, and even the local media were present. But as he was warming up, a fight broke out at the venue and the fight was cancelled. The cancellation upset me. The first thing I thought about was the money I had to pay my friends back. So, I approached the promoter of the event, who gave me all sorts of excuses about how he couldn’t compensate me. If not anything else, I asked him to give me enough money to buy a flight ticket back home. The shady promoter vanished from the venue, didn’t pick up my calls and even blocked me on Facebook.”

• On 29 June 2019, Anshul made his professional MMA debut with Matrix Fight Night (MFN) 2 against Sanjeet Budhwar. Initially, Anshul was not a part of the roster. He, however, made it to the event after volunteering to fight Sanjeet. In an interview, Siddharth Singh, Anshul’s coach, said that he recommended Anshul’s name to the matchmakers of MFN after Anshul managed to persuade him that he could take on Sanjeet. Siddharth also said that except for Anshul, no other fighter was willing to fight against Sanjeet. Anshul defeated Sanjeet by a unanimous decision.

  

• On 20 December 2019, Anshul participated in a match at MFN 3 and won against Amit Kumar by a unanimous decision.

• He participated in the fourth season of MFN on 20 February 2020. He won a match against Rajith Chandran by delivering a Knock Out (KO) punch.

• On 20 December 2020, he participated in a match against Srikant Sekhar in MFN 5 and won it.

• On 24 September 2021, Anshul fought against Mohammad Mahmoudiyan in MFN 6. He won the match through submission by giving an arm triangle choke to Mahmoudiyan.

• In 2022, Anshul participated in the Road to UFC in Las Vegas. He did not fight in the quarter-finals on 10 June 2022 as his opponent Patrick Sho Usami, a Japanese MMA fighter, was disqualified due to a weight management issue. In an interview, Anshul expressed his disappointment and said that he had hoped to fight Patrick as he had prepared for it. He further said that it took him two days to get over it and accept it. Talking about it, he said,
  

  I was disappointed after I got to know that I have been elevated directly to the semi finals. I was not in a good frame of mind for the next two or three days. But slowly, I realised that what has happened, has happened and perhaps for the greater good.”

• On 23 October 2022, Anshul Jubli participated in the semi-finals at the Road to UFC against a South Korean MMA player named KyeongPyo Kim and defeated him via a split decision.

• In January 2023, Anshul signed a contract with a sports management company named Paradigm, which also works with renowned MMA fighters like Conor McGregor and Israel Adesanya.

• Anshul Jubli defeated Jeka Saragih, an Indonesian player, in the final round of the Road to UFC on 5 February 2023 and signed a contract with the UFC.
  

• In an interview, Anshul said that he got influenced to represent India by reading the diary of the Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

• Anshul Jubli is an avid dog lover. He has a pet golden retriever named Scooby.

  

• Anshul consumes alcoholic beverages occasionally.

  

• Before starting his career as an MMA player, Anshul used to give maths tuition in Dehradun.

• Anshul faced bullying as a kid as a result of which he started pursuing field sports like football and volleyball.