Mumbai Garuda thrash UP Warriors 5-2

Adeline Gray-led Mumbai Garuda finished as many as four of their bouts on technical superiority to post a comfortable 5-2 victory over Uttar Pradesh Warriors in the inaugural edition of the Pro Wrestling League here on Thursday.

After the opening bout was won by World Championship silver medallist Purevjav Unurbat as expected, UP Warriors could pull just one more back, going down tamely in the end.

Even UP’s captain Babita was stunned by Nigerian girl Odunayo Adekuoroye.

The opening bout was a one-sided contest as Unurbat wrapped it up in just one minute and 45 seconds after completely overpowering Pradeep of Mumbai Garuda to post a comprehensive 12-1 victory in the Men’s 74kg category to give UP Warriors an early 1-0 lead.

Sakshi Malik of Mumbai then managed to eke out a narrow 3-2 win over UP’s Sarita in Women’s 58kg to equal the scores at 1-1. It was a neck-and-neck battle in the first round, where Sakshi managed to win just a point over her UP rival to take a slender 1-0 at the break.

Second round was also a closely-fought affair but Sakshi once again took an upper hand by bagging two points before Sarita pulled two back to reduce the margin.

Mumbai gained the lead through Rahul Aware as he thrashed compatriot Jaideep Kumar of UP 11-0 in just 3:46 minutes in Men’s 57kg, but not before suffering an injury with blood coming out from his right temple and a cut on the left cheek bone.