Dinesh Naorem

When Dinesh Naorem arrived at Imphal airport in April 2023, members of DJ Gym from Kakching Makha Lou and young people from his locality were there to receive him. He had beaten Sagar Thapa at Matrix Fight Night 11 in New Delhi, stopping his opponent in the third round. The Chronicle News Service report of that homecoming recorded the welcome waiting for him after the win.

In August 2021, he had won two Asian championship medals but still faced an uncertain professional future. Speaking that month to The Sangai Express, preserved by E-Pao, Dinesh was weighing whether his family’s finances would allow him to turn professional. He described returning to Manipur during the pandemic and working at a nearby brickfield to help cover food and family expenses. At that point in his career, earning enough to continue training was part of the same problem as the training itself.

He had already made an appearance on the amateur world stage. Before travelling to Bahrain in 2019, he told The MMA India Show that he had started MMA training that January and competed in two open national championships. He identified himself as a grappler, describing an approach built around forward pressure whether the fight stayed standing or reached the ground. He was preparing at Bengaluru’s KOI Combat Academy under Vishal Seigell, alongside fellow Manipur athlete Surbala Devi Laishram.

The Bahrain trip ended early. IMMAF’s athlete entry records his flyweight world-championship appearance against Israel Galvan, while Sherdog lists a first-round submission defeat.

The Asian medals followed in Kyrgyzstan in August 2021. The official GAMMA event book places Dinesh first in men’s 56.7 kg MMA and second in the separate 56.7 kg Striking MMA category. Uson Uulu Murzabek was the other MMA finalist; Yermakhan Oryntayev won the striking category. The Frontier Manipur also followed his progress through those brackets.

There were two medals because he had entered two disciplines. Neither belongs in his professional win-loss total. At the GAMMA World MMA Championships’ delayed 2021 edition, held the following March, the federation’s results listed him third in men’s 56.7 kg MMA: a world bronze to follow the Asian MMA gold and Striking MMA silver.

He beat Arsenba Ozukum at MFN 10 in November 2022, when Ozukum’s corner withdrew after the second round. At MFN 11 the following March, Dinesh stopped Sagar Thapa two minutes and nine seconds into round three—the win followed by that airport reception. He added a first-round ground-and-pound TKO against Balveer Tomar at MFN 16 in February 2025.

A submission win followed in Bengaluru on 18 April 2026. Sherdog lists a second-round rear-naked choke over Ateet Kelvin Gupta at Immortal Fighting Championship, and LockerRoom’s event report independently includes Dinesh among the winners. Two weeks later, he faced Sunatullo Azizov at MFN 18. The official results record a unanimous-decision defeat, his first loss in the five professional bouts listed by Sherdog.

All four of those recorded professional victories came by stoppage. The athlete who spoke in 2021 about the difficulty of turning professional had made that transition, while carrying an amateur history that spans world competition and two distinct GAMMA disciplines. The Azizov bout on 2 May 2026 is the latest result we could locate, following four stoppage wins and the airport welcome after his victory over Thapa.