One day in 2019, a coach approached him with a proposal to grant him Indian citizenship and have him compete under India’s name, but Rabindra flatly rejected the offer.
Bajhang, 10 Aug: The buzz around “Matrix Fight Night” has been growing among Nepalis over the past week. Following fighter Rabindra Dhat’s extraordinary performance, he has suddenly risen to the peak of public attention. His game is being praised not only nationally but also on the international stage.
Rabindra, who has become the first player from Nepal to win an international Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) championship, continues to receive an outpouring of congratulations. While he is busy accepting congratulations from the President, Prime Minister, and former Prime Ministers, several municipalities in Bajhang have also announced plans to honor him with cash prizes.
On the night of August 1, in a competition held in Noida, India, Rabindra became the Matrix Fight Night (MFN) Bantamweight Champion by defeating his Indian opponent. He overcame the previously undefeated champion of India, Chonreing Koren. In the third round, Rabindra’s relentless strikes put Koren in serious trouble, prompting the referee to stop the fight and declare Rabindra the winner by TKO.
Known for his powerful wrestling and aggressive strength, Coren—nicknamed “The Indian Rhino”—was pummeled by Rabindra in a video shared on social media, prompting many to dub him the “Bajhangi Tiger.”
This same scene was also watched by Rabindra’s father, Hare Dhat, and mother, Thepadi Devi, in Bithadchir Rural Municipality of Bajhang, on a neighbor’s mobile phone. When the opponent knocked Rabindra down in the ring and landed punches, Thepadi screamed and cried. When Rabindra dominated Coren, father Hare clapped along with the neighbors. “My heart kept pounding until 3 a.m.,” Hare told Kantipur. “After he won the match, we were so happy we couldn’t sleep at all.”
The next morning, calls started pouring in for Hare, congratulating him for his son bringing pride to the nation. At their home near the Jayaprithvi Highway, even strangers have been dropping by to meet him and offer their congratulations — a trend that continues to this day.
“Everyone is saying my son did well,” Hare said. “He’s brought us recognition and made the country’s name known. We feel so happy.”
An Opportunity Found in Delhi
Ravindra’s journey — from starting with nothing to reaching the pinnacle of success — is nothing short of a movie script. Raised in a cowshed in Bajhang, he is now making Nepal’s name shine in the international ring. Yet, just ten years ago, he was working as a laborer in Pithoragarh, India.
In his low-income family, 57-year-old Hare Dhaat has three sons and two daughters, with Ravindra being the middle son. Since childhood, the eldest brother, Chandra, had been sustaining the household by spending six months a year farming and the other six months doing labor work in various parts of India, and now lives in Bengaluru with his wife. Hare expected Ravindra to follow the same path. So, right after Ravindra finished his SLC exams in 2013 (2070 B.S.), his father took him along to Pithoragarh to work as a laborer.
There, like his father, elder brother, and other relatives, Ravindra broke stones, loaded and unloaded cement sacks onto trucks, carried heavy loads, set up electric poles, cut grass, and worked in the fields. After about two years, the earnings were still not enough, so in 2016 (2073 B.S.) the family sent him to Delhi. Ravindra went with his schoolmate and cousin, Harish Dhaat, to the capital of India.
While working as a helper in a plywood manufacturing company in Delhi, Ravindra stumbled upon the opportunity he had secretly wished for since childhood. Back in his village and in Pithoragarh, he had never felt able to tell his family about it, as the pressure was to work hard and help sustain the household. In Delhi, he gained some independence, but still feared that if word reached home that their hardworking son was “wasting time,” it would cause trouble — so he began learning martial arts in secret.
“He came to Delhi with me. We lived in the same room for two years,” Harish said. “He didn’t even tell me he was training, worried I might tell the family. I only found out nine months later when he was about to compete at an event in the Indira Gandhi International Sports Complex in Delhi.” Harish, who has been his classmate since grade one, recalls: “Whether breaking stones or lifting heavy loads, he treated it more like exercise than work. Even in secret, he trained — and in the end, he fulfilled his dream.”
Ravindra has won all 15 amateur competitions he participated in India and has so far played 10 professional matches in China, Russia, Nepal, India, and Thailand, winning 9 of them.
Coaches in India, who knew his abilities well, wanted him to compete internationally under the Indian flag. But Ravindra had the burning desire to enter the ring draped in his own country’s flag.
One day in 2076 BS, a coach approached him with an offer to grant him Indian citizenship and have him compete under India’s name. Ravindra flatly rejected the proposal. “If I find some work, I’ll play carrying my country’s flag. If not, I’ll go to a Gulf country to work,” he recalls, adding that just days later, he left Delhi for Kathmandu. “Luckily, I met Divij dai here. It’s only because of him that I was able to achieve this success.”
While searching for a place to learn mixed martial arts in Kathmandu, he met Divij, who has since been covering all his expenses, Ravindra said.
Now, the UFC dream
Driven by the dream of becoming a world champion, Ravindra has ignored his studies, his family’s wishes, and his own youthful interests. His new goal is to enter the world-famous mixed martial arts competition — the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).
He knows very well how much parents get distressed when they see a fight so intense it makes your heart tremble. “When they see me fighting, it feels like their hearts might tear apart. They say, ‘You’ve already won, when will you let go? Let go quickly.’ They are happy that I win, but deep down they are always afraid something might happen,” he says, speaking about his parents’ worries.
To ease his family’s concerns, he brought his two younger sisters and one younger brother to Kathmandu, saying he would take care of their education. Amid the stress of preparing for his own matches, paying rent, and covering his siblings’ educational expenses, he has a firm determination: one day, he will fight in the UFC.
Standing by his side in this determination is Divij Pia Lama. Lama, a mixed martial arts trainer, not only coaches him but also invests the earnings from his own gym into his training. “Preparing for one match can cost around 700,000 to 800,000 rupees,” Lama says. “For the past four or five years, I have been covering all those costs myself.” He explains that he does this because he believes Rabindra can make Nepal known to the world. “I am also an MMA fighter. The dedication and determination Rabindra has are extremely rare,” Lama says. He adds that there has been no support from the government for nurturing national talent, nor does he expect any.
For his part, Rabindra also has no expectations from the government. However, he says that if the government could help with things like training and accommodation, it would make things easier for his supporter Lama. “But then again, if the government helps, I’m afraid they might bring unnecessary political pressure,” Rabindra says seriously. “After the level of effort and struggle I went through to achieve this success, it would be good if the government could now work to institutionalize it.”
