Pakistan’s Maliha Ali secured a bronze medal at the IMMAF World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, following a semifinal loss against Russia’s Polina Baldina in the featherweight (65.8kg) category. The Pakistan MMA Federation has submitted a formal appeal regarding the split-decision result, citing concerns over inconsistent scoring by the judges.
The semifinal match was described as closely contested, with neither athlete clearly dominating. While Baldina appeared to have an advantage in the second round, the first and third rounds remained competitive. Maliha landed cleaner strikes in the final round and raised her arms at the bell, believing she had won. However, the judges provided conflicting scorecards: one awarded Baldina a 30-27 victory, a second scored the fight 29-28 for Maliha, and a third gave Baldina a 29-28 win.
Pakistan MMA Federation President Omar Ahmed criticized the outcome, stating Maliha had clearly won and claiming Pakistan had been robbed of victory. The federation has requested a round-by-round scoring breakdown, an explanation for the scorecard discrepancies, and a face-to-face technical review of both fights from the head of the IMMAF Refereeing and Judging Commission. The federation noted that Pakistan suffered a similar split-decision semifinal defeat at last year’s championships and argued that inconsistent judging makes it difficult for national federations to understand athlete evaluations.
Ahmed further alleged that former Soviet countries favor one another in judging and hold significant influence over refereeing. He noted that Russia entered two fighters in each weight category with a multimillion-dollar national sponsor budget, while Pakistan had no representatives on the judging panel.
Maliha achieved her bronze medal while competing with a fractured toe, a severely bruised eyelid, and a partially dislocated jaw. When asked if she could continue, she told Ahmed she fought from the heart and that her injured hands and feet were less important.
Earlier in the tournament, Maliha defeated Russia’s Veronika Drozdova by split decision and then secured a unanimous-decision victory over Mexico’s Andrea Gabriela Guzman Salazar to reach the semifinals. Her opponent, 23-year-old Baldina, had won a world title under a different MMA federation in 2024 and had three victories heading into the final.
