ISLAMABAD: Pakistan edged India out 2-1 in the Karate Combat 45 competition in Dubai on Saturday night, with an “unstoppable” Shahzaib Rind convincingly beating India’s Rana Singh to seal the win.
Karate Combat is a professional martial arts league featuring full-contact karate bouts. Karate Combat hosts events around the world, showcasing bouts between skilled fighters from different weight classes and countries.
The match between the two countries was decided in the final round after Pakistan’s Rizwan Ali and India’s Himanshu Kaushik won the first and second competition of the match, respectively.
“Shahzaib Rind is just unstoppable inside the pit!” Karate Combat wrote on social media platform X. “Pakistan beats India 2-1 with this victory.”
The competition began with Ali facing India’s Pawan Gupta. The bout was a one-sided one, with Ali knocking out Gupta soon earlier on and ending the match in Pakistan’s favor.
India then leveled the match when its fighter Himanshu Kaushik overcame Pakistan’s Faizan Khan in the second fixture, making it 1-1 before Rind delivered decisive blows to Singh to seal the victory for Pakistan 2-1.
The fixture between India and Pakistan was a much-awaited one, especially due to the pre-match hype between fighters of the two countries.
At a pre-match news conference on Friday, Rind slapped Singh before both were separated by their team members. The video of the altercation went viral on social media.
