Maliha Ali beats Russia's Drozdova at IMMAF worlds, meets Mexico in the quarter-final

Pakistan's Maliha Ali has beaten Russia's two-time European champion Veronika Drozdova by split decision in the featherweight (65.8kg) division of the IMMAF World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday 3 November, Dawn reported. She is into the quarter-finals, where she meets Andrea Gabriela Guzman Salazar of Mexico on Wednesday 4 November. Her twin sister Manesha Ali also fights on Wednesday, against Martyna Caruk of Poland.

The IMMAF (International Mixed Martial Arts Federation) World Championships are the top event in amateur MMA, the level below the professional promotions such as the UFC.

How the fight went

• Round 1: Maliha pressed Drozdova against the cage and closed the round with clean strikes, though the Russian landed a couple of overhand lefts.
• Round 2: the clearest round for Pakistan. Maliha took Drozdova down, moved to full mount and landed heavy blows from the top.
• Round 3: Drozdova got the takedown and controlled the ground, and won the round. Two of the three judges still gave the fight to Maliha.

"I was listening to the corner and the coach's instructions during the fight," Maliha told Dawn, adding that the team had studied Drozdova's game plan and style.

Who Maliha and Manesha Ali are

• Maliha Ali, 24, is from Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan: a wushu champion and national kickboxing gold medallist who won silver at the IMMAF World Cup in Luanda, Angola, earlier this year.
• Manesha Ali, her twin, won gold in Luanda at the same event.
• Drozdova, 19, came in as a two-time European champion, part of a Russian squad of more than 60 athletes with government backing.

"The most underfunded federation"

Pakistan MMA Federation president Omar Ahmed told Dawn the federation ran a six-week camp and brought in an international jiu-jitsu and grappling coach after spotting gaps in Maliha's game in Angola: "There were some holes in their game which we spotted during the event in Angola." He said Pakistan was "the most underfunded and probably the least-resourced federation competing in this event", which he put down to the country's sports policy. Last year's campaign, also in Tbilisi, was paid for through private sponsorship. "We come from almost nothing; the only thing we have is our grit and desire to succeed," he said.

Watching on Wednesday

Georgia is one hour behind Pakistan (Tbilisi is UTC+4, PKT is UTC+5), so a session starting at 10am in Tbilisi begins at 11am PKT. IMMAF had not published bout times for the quarter-finals in the reports we have seen; check IMMAF's own channels for the running order. We will add both twins' results here.

For the rest of the fight calendar in Pakistan time, see our UFC schedule in Pakistan time.