Pakistan’s Maliha Ali has won an IMMAF World Championships bronze medal in Tbilisi, and her tournament is not quite finished. The 24-year-old from Hunza lost her women’s featherweight semi-final to Russia’s Polina Baldina on a split decision on Thursday 5 November, a result the Pakistan MMA Federation has formally appealed, asking the world body for a round-by-round breakdown of the judges’ cards and a technical review of the bout. Until that review says otherwise, the bronze is hers, Baldina remains the finalist, and the argument over three scorecards continues.
- Medal: bronze, women’s featherweight (65.8 kg), IMMAF World Championships, Tbilisi
- Semi-final: lost to Polina Baldina (Russia) by split decision, cards 30-27, 29-28, 29-28
- Quarter-final: beat Andrea Gabriela Guzman Salazar (Mexico) by unanimous decision
- Earlier: beat Veronika Drozdova (Russia), a two-time European champion, by split decision
- Appeal: Pakistan MMA Federation has asked IMMAF for a scoring breakdown and technical review; no decision or timetable yet
The Road to an IMMAF World Championships Bronze
Ali’s run through the draw was built on beating favoured opponents. She first defeated Russia’s Veronika Drozdova, a two-time European champion, on a split decision, then outpointed Mexico’s Andrea Gabriela Guzman Salazar unanimously in the quarter-final to reach the last four. There she met Baldina, a former world champion, and the fight went the full distance. One judge scored it 30-27 for Baldina, a card that suggests a clear winner. A second judge gave Baldina a 29-28 edge, while the third scored the same 29-28 margin for Ali. Two cards to one, and her final place was gone by the width of a single round on a single card.
What makes the medal remarkable is the condition she fought in. Dawn reported on 7 November that Ali competed with a fractured toe, a badly bruised eyelid and a partially dislocated jaw. She is 24, comes from Hunza in Gilgit-Baltistan, and trains at BRAVE Gym in Lahore, where reports of her rise say she took up mixed martial arts only about ten months before these championships. A world medal, on a broken toe, less than a year into the sport: the bronze understates the performance.
Photo: MasterVusi, via Wikimedia Commons
Why Pakistan Has Appealed the Scoring
The Pakistan MMA Federation’s complaint is aimed at the officiating, not at Baldina. In a formal request to the head of the IMMAF Refereeing and Judging Commission, the federation asked for a round-by-round scoring breakdown, an explanation of the wide gap between the 30-27 card and the two 29-28 cards, and a face-to-face technical review of the contest. Federation president Omar Ahmed also pointed to judging consistency, noting that Pakistan lost another championship semi-final on a split decision last year. The federation has since acknowledged that its own first announcement, which said Ali had qualified for the final, was incorrect.
For now, the official record is unchanged. IMMAF has published no decision and no timetable for the review, a scoring review can explain the cards without by itself overturning a result, and the federation has not said it expects the medals to be reassigned. Baldina advanced to the final and stays the winner of the bout unless the review changes the record. Ali’s IMMAF World Championships bronze medal has already been awarded and is not in question.
R E A D M O R E
Sherbaz Marri Wins Gold as Pakistan Finish Second at Nomad MMA Championship in Kazakhstan
A Family Affair in Tbilisi
Ali was not the only member of her family in the draw. Her twin sister Manesha Ali, who won gold at the IMMAF World Cup in Angola earlier this year, lost her lightweight quarter-final to Poland’s Martyna Caruk on a split decision, according to The Express Tribune. The family’s championship therefore ended with one bronze medal and one narrow defeat, both settled by the judges’ cards rather than by stoppage or submission, which is part of why the scoring questions will not go away quickly.
Part of a Strong Season for Pakistani Sport
The medal also adds to a year in which Pakistani mixed martial arts has kept reaching new ground, including Asim Khan’s bronze at the Asian Games in Nagoya, where MMA appeared at the Games for the first time. Beyond the cage, it has been a rich season for Pakistani athletes, from Pakistan hosting the Asian Team Squash Championships in Islamabad to the veterans who beat Australia to win the Over-40s World Cup. Maliha Ali’s bronze belongs in that company whatever the review decides: a fighter from Hunza, ten months into her sport, standing on a world championship podium with three injuries and a medal that nobody can take back.
Sources
- KhabarWire: Maliha Ali Wins MMA World Bronze as Pakistan Appeals Semifinal Defeat, 7 November 2026
- The Express Tribune reports from Tbilisi on the semi-final, the federation appeal and Manesha Ali’s quarter-final, November 2026
- Dawn, 7 November 2026, on the injuries Ali carried through the championships
- IMMAF, on the championship schedule in Tbilisi (semi-finals on the fourth day of competition)
- Featured image: Cage action from an IMMAF World Championships bout in Bahrain; Maliha Ali is not pictured. Photo: Haribhagirath, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
- In-body image: A championship MMA cage and arena at the IMPI World Series. Photo: MasterVusi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Umar Farooq is the founder and editor of Good News Pakistan. An engineer by profession and a writer by passion, he started the site in December 2022 to share good news from Pakistan, and has since written and edited more than 200 articles about its people, sports, science, business and world records. He believes the story of Pakistan is bigger than its headlines, and that good news, told honestly, is worth telling every day.