A huge surprise and fear for Mahboob Khan and his coach, Shaik Khalid, the founder of Telangana Association Mixed Martial Arts (TAMMA), when they received Mahboob's selection letter from MMA India in early November.

Mahboob Khan, who is a native of Hyderabad and was India's first and only international Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion, has been selected for another global championship, but a lack of financial assistance has become a serious issue for his participation.

"This is to confirm that Mr. Mohammed Mahboob Khan from Telangana has been selected by MMA India to represent India in the upcoming IMMAF (International MMA Federation)-WMMAA (World MMA Association) Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Championship 2021 from January 24-29 in Abu Dhabi," the letter said.

Furthermore, according to the letter from MMA India, the whole cost of participation, including registration, travel, visa, and stay, would be around Rs. 1.80 lakhs.

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However, Shaik Khalid would once again have to overburden himself with training his athlete as well as running around looking for support for him.

When Mahboob won India's first and only world champion in the Bahrain IMMAF World Championship, Shaik Khalid said that the whole squad, including himself, donated and raised approximately 2 lakh so that Mahboob could fight.

Because MMA is a non-Olympic sport, there is no financial assistance from the government, Khalid pointed out.

In his career, Mahboob Khan has made history by becoming the first and only worldwide MMA champion in 2018. He has five years of amateur fighting experience, currently has a record of 34 victories, three straw-weight and four flyweight national gold medals, one international gold medal, and is a five-time fight-night (semi-pro) champion.