It’s one of the fastest growing sports in the world. In Pakistan, however, mixed martial arts is yet to really pick up. Bashir Ahmed has been striving to change that. Pakistan’s first national MMA champion firmly believes that one day this exciting sport, which encompasses disciplines from various martial arts and Olympic sports, such as boxing, kick-boxing, karate, jiu-jitsu, muay thai, tae kwon do, wrestling and judo, will rise to become the number one pastime in Pakistan, toppling cricket in the process.

To those who don’t know Bashir, I must tell that his is a compelling story. Born in Lahore, Bashir moved to the US as a child. He joined the National Guards to pay for his fee at Virginia Commonwealth University and later served as a medic on a bomb disposal squad in Mosul during the Iraq war in 2003. He was a bit of a misfit in a war primarily fought against Muslims. He spent most of his time reading books like Malcolm X’s autobiography and finally decided to follow in the footsteps of Muhammad Ali, whose refusal to fight in Vietnam helped change the course of American history. "I thought of it as fighting the system through combat sports," he says.

After returning to the US in 2006, Bashir started taking jiujitsu lessons. Later he opted to move to his native Pakistan in 2008 with a mission to promote MMA in the country.

"I started training at the age of 23 at the end of 2005. I originally started training traditional Japanese jiujitsu and street self-defense. The thought of training to be a professional MMA fighter was not on my mind. A year or into training I realized that in order to be good I needed to test myself in real combat. That real combat is MMA," he told ‘The News on Sunday’ in an interview.

Bashir has been fighting the odds since his return to Pakistan.

"The main hurdle that I faced was getting everyone to work together. When I first arrived I was a weird Pakistani American who chose to leave the US to live in Pakistan. For people that was very strange because martial arts was not a lucrative business and in fact something that was mostly practiced by the lower classes. So in the beginning no one was taking me seriously and no one wanted to work with me. However, that worked out in my favor because I ended up creating and working within an entirely new market for martial arts in Pakistan."

Bashir sees great future for MMA. "I sincerely believe that this sport can topple even cricket in Pakistan. There is no other sport that I see that is continuously on the rise and that has a growing domestic scene and a growing number of stars. Maybe I live in a bubble but I do not see any other sport gaining this kind of traction in social media. Maybe boxing, but when any combat sport grows they all benefit. If boxing grows there is no chance MMA won’t grow side by side.

"So in the next five years I see MMA becoming an established sport in Pakistan. Still new, still small, but established. In about 10 years I see a time where we will find out if MMA is going to become the new sports super power or not.

"But my feelings are positive. This is the most exciting sport in the world right now and I believe it will only grow in popularity in Pakistan," said Bashir, who has competed in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

"I strongly believe that government support is not the only recipe for success. For example, government support sends millions of rupees for Olympics, but sadly not a single athlete qualified. I would ideally want the government’s support in obtaining visas, securing venues and providing security for sporting events. Other than that I feel government should prioritise its spending on sectors such as education, public health and energy followed by sports.

"I believe that if you have a passion for MMA, then you accept what it entails. I think that the real challenge lies in educating the masses that it’s more than just a "knock out" sport. Even if MMA If you don’t choose to fight professionally, martial arts is one of the most powerful tools for human development. It helps one physically, mentally and even spiritually. At the same time, real martial arts is much beyond what you see in ‘Jackie Chan’ movies.

So what’s Bashir’s recommendation to young athletes on how to make it to the next levels in MMA?

"The first and really only thing I can recommend them is to find a good gym and train there. Commitment and hard work is the key, if you aspire to be a UFC fighter you will have to give it time and dedication. Like any other sports, you get better with time and practice. I myself have spent countless nights in the gym because I use to practically live in my gym," he said.

Bashir was lucky to escape last week’s deadly blast at a Lahore restaurant.

"I was getting ready for a shoot at Toni & Guy so I called a taxi but the app showed that it was going to reach the place in 20 minutes. I then called my wife who informed me that our driver was in close vicinity; I then cancelled the taxi and decided to get to the shoot venue with my own driver. Minutes after I left the salon, I heard a huge explosion. I asked my driver and he said that it was probably a transformer explosion.  I knew from the vibration generated that it was anything but a transformer explosion. Later, looking at the images on social media I realized that had I not decided to go with my own driver I would have been standing outside where the explosion occurred, waiting for the taxi," he said.

But such incidents are unlikely to dim the ambitions of a man, who believes he is on a mission. One hopes for the sake of MMA in Pakistan that he succeeds.