Praveen Lohiya

Born and brought up in a village Aya Nagar in Delhi, Praveen has seen various colors of life. There is a small ''AKHADA'' in his village which helped Praveen in building his future in sports. He was 13 years old when he started wrestling. Since, he had the benefit of having Akhada in his own village, he used to practice over their, day and night sometimes with his friends and many a times alone.

He started his career in sports with wrestling. There used to be a lot of competitions happening in the village, in the same akhada and sometimes in Delhi where he used to take part almost every time. Sometimes he had to leave the competition in between due to some family issues. But he used to get back to competitions and sports game. Praveen says he is very much inspired with an Indian professional Kabaddi player Anup Kumar. Family always opposed this, they used to say there's no point in investing so much of time in it.

They were afraid of bruises and the fact that during these practices he might hurt himself but somehow he managed to make them understand that this what he loves to do and sports is his passion. One of his friends broke his leg while practicing and so Praveen's family was afraid that Praveen can also face the same repercussions. 24 year old Praveen left his studies after he completed his 12th. Since, he had to focus on his sports as well as his family he started to work.

He started to work as a Taxi Driver. Praveen never wanted to take money from his family neither he was ready to compromise in his practice. For two years Praveen worked as a Taxi driver in Delhi. He used to work in the morning, practice in the afternoon, again work in the evening and late in the night when he used to come back he used to practice again.

This hectic schedule was somewhere bringing issues to his practice and hence he decided to quit his job but not his dreams. He used to practice his wrestling in his own akhada and sometimes he used to go to Indira Gandhi Stadium for boxing practice. Currently in Gurgaon, Praveen is training in Gyms and he has been doing past two years.

After Praveen got married, his family asked him to quit all these sports and get into some jobs since he is married and has responsibilities now. After which he gave a thought to get back to a job but then he realized that there's nothing that captures his interest as much as sports and so he decided to stick to his sports only. Praveen says that his wife supports him to continue with his love for sports and that's what his strength is. Praveen is the only person in his family who is into sports and he plans to built his career in MMA only.