Who is gama

His winning streak started when he was just 10 years old as he went on to defeat every wrestler who challenged him. A stalky wrestler who was just 5 feet and 7 inches tall, some wrestlers even made fun of him, but he spared none of them. By , Gama had defeated all prominent Indian wrestlers as the doors of the western world opened for him.

After the Partition in , Gama moved to Pakistan. Although Gama did not retire until , he failed to find any new opponents. He died in Lahore in after a prolonged illness. He was suffering from asthma and heart disease. Lee also performed baithaks, inspired by the Great Gama. To stay updated with more positive news, please connect with us on Facebook. Please fill in this field. He had black eyes and hair. His daily training did not use to be a cake walk. Gama used to grapple with 40 of his fellow wrestlers in the court.

Gama also used to do Baithaks squats and Dands pushups in a day. The Great Gama used to squat with a 95 kg doughnut-shaped exercise disc. When Gama was 6-year-old , he lost his father , Muhammad Aziz Baksh, who was also a prominent wrestler. In , at the age of 10 , Gama was first noticed when he entered a strongman competition held in Jodhpur.

While on a visit to the then Baroda state modern-day Vadodara to attend a wrestling competition, Gama Pehalwan lifted a stone weighing over 1, kilograms. The stone has now been kept at Baroda Museum. Raheem Bakhsh Sultani Wala was a middle-aged guy with almost 7-feet height and also had an impressive record.

The bout continued for hours and eventually ended in a draw. After his domestic successes, Gama started focussing his attention on the rest of the world.

Gama Pehalwan with Raheem Bakhsh Sultaniwala. However, because of his short stature , he could not gain instant entry. While in London , he issued a challenge that he could throw any 3 wrestlers in 30 minutes of any weight class , but no one turned as they considered it a bluff. Further, Gama specifically challenged Stanislaus Zbyszko and Frank Gotch that either they turn up or give away the prize money.

Gama pinned him in 1 minute 40 seconds the 1st time , and in 9 minutes 10 seconds the other. The next day, Gama gained entry to the official tournament after defeating 12 wrestlers. After nearly three hours of grappling , Zbyszko wrestled the great Gama to a draw. In the match with Benjamin Roller , Gama threw him 13 times in the minute match. However, each of them declined his invitation.

At one point, Gama offered to fight 20 English wrestlers back-to-back , but still, no one would take up his challenge. In , Gama defeated another best wrestler of India, Pandit Biddu. In , when the Prince of Wales was on his visit to India, he presented Gama with a silver mace. Until , Gama did not have any opponents.

But by this time, Zbyszko had attained an image of showmanship by this time, the era of present day pro wrestling had actually started with booked matches , and several people thought of this as a worked attempt to push the stars who were past their prime. In February , Gama beat Jesse Petersen in just one and a half minutes. But, no one ever did. Gama remained in active wrestling till , but could not find an opponent and thus he retired, undefeated.

Once he put up a challenge to stop a train from moving and the stipulation was to make a 11 km stratch fare free, for all Indians. But, the British government of the time, turned down the offer.

After India and Pakistan became independent in , and the partition of India happened, Gama opted to move to Pakistan and spent the rest of his life in Lahorealong with his brother, the Indian champion Imam Bux and his nephews. The Great Gama died in Lahore on 21 May. But, the exact year of his death is still unclear, and there are arguments that it was and that it was The biggest legend to rise in Pehlwani wrestling in the many years that followed was Dara Singh.

He beat several former world champions including Zbyszko in the United States. Dara Singh retired from active wrestling in It is interesting to note that Gama and Dara have never faced each other because both had their prime periods at very near yet, different points in wrestling history. Again, I must communicate here that Gama has not been inducted into the wrestling hall of fame or in most of the other groups of elites related to wrestling.

It is not that Dara was not a great wrestler or he was undeserving of the honour. But, the point is that Dara Singh despite being a great wrestler, was also a well known Indian actor and has left his mark in the celluloid.

This, along with matches against Lou Thesz could also have been reasons for inducting him while ignoring Gama till this time. Today, a hass which is a doughnut shaped exercise disc shown in picture , weighing 95 kgs, used by him for squats, is placed at the National Institute of Sports NIS Museum at Patiala.

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