Bajrang Punia Breakdown, Part 1: Bajrang Begins
Photo by Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Bajrang Punia is one of India’s brightest stars across all sports. Ranked third in the always-stacked 65 kilogram weight division and a returning world bronze medalist, Bajrang looked primed to live up to the performance of his mentor, one of India’s best lightweights ever, 2012 60 KG Olympic bronze medalist Yogeshwar Dutt. But with the COVID-19 outbreak we will have to wait again for some time until we can see Bajrang compete. With that being the case, let’s take a deep dive into the career of one of India’s best.
Career Breakdown: Bajrang Punia
Before going onward to Bajrang’s career, and his highly impressive ledger of wins and his humbling losses, we must first cover how Bajrang operates as a wrestler.
Bajrang’s pressure and conditioning are the centerpiece of his technical game, and frequently, he has broken opponents with it. What allows for Bajrang’s pressure to be successful, and also helps compensate for him being a slow starter, is its ascending nature, building and building as his opponent tires, Bajrang is still fresh to attack.
Bajrang’s constant snapping and pulling on his opponent’s head also plays to open them up and put them out of position. Bajrang’s pressure is multi-faceted, marching his opponents down with snaps and his foot stomp single and utilizing a strong righty underhook that he will use to break their position.
From there he can look for a step out or to throw it by for a takedown, or to set up a single leg or a double leg or a solid low double as well.
From the pressure that Bajrang applies, he is often able to get opponents in a front headlock that he will use to get a near ankle and get a go behind, a knee pull single or he will use a right side inside trip to get a takedown.
Bajrang has recently developed a solid over collar tie shuck that he uses to give him another of avenue of scoring of his pressure.
From par-terre Bajrang is absolutely punishing, utilizing a figure four to set up his bent leg turk that he will use to turn or pin opponents, or he will use it to open up their hips and get a high gut with it to earn his points.
But Bajrang is not invincible and does present limitations that have prevented him from attaining senior World and Olympic gold. Bajrang’s pressure, while being one of his greatest strengths, is also one of his defining weaknesses. Because Bajrang spends so much time pressing forward in a more upright stance he leaves himself open to leg attacks from his opponents.
It is best for a wrestler to maintain a lower stance with shoulder, knee, toe alignment to ensure their position is not so forward or offset that they are open for attacks from their opponent. Along with this, hands & head defense is essential to make sure that your opponent is blocked from getting to an attack. Having covered these fundamentals, Bajrang’s hands and head defense are solid enough but it is that his stance is offset from pressuring so much that he can often be caught by strong rivals in leg attacks and score on him early and continue to capitalize on his increased pressure he will apply to make up the deficit.
This strategy has been utilized brilliantly by world champions #2 Takuto Otoguro of Japan and #7 Nachyin Kuular of Russia. But to cope with this weakness, Bajrang has developed a strong crotch lock and chest wrap that he uses to get go behinds or redirect his opponents for exposure.
Bajrang’s pressure can also cost him dearly when he has an underhook or an over-under as pressing forward into a ready and capable opponent leaves him at risk to be thrown, which was done expertly by Tulga Tumur Ochir in their 2019 world bronze medal match and Mustafa Kaya in their repechage match at the 2017 senior world championships.
2011
Bajrang started his career with two Cadet Asian Championship titles, with his 2011 title coming over future two time Junior World champion Iman Sadeghikoukandeh of Iran. His first World medal would come in the form of a contentious silver medal at the 54 KG 2011 Cadet World Championships against Sultan Narullayev of Azerbaijan. Bajrang was later awarded the gold medal after it was found that the deciding criteria used in the match was faulty. Even early on in his career, Bajrang was breaking his opponent with his constant pressure scoring several go behinds and reattacks on the Azeri.
2012-2013
Bajrang would continue to see success at the continental level, registering a runner-up finish at the 2012 Junior Asian Championships to Arash Dangesaraki of Iran. Bajrang would fail to place at the 2012 Junior World Championships taking fifth. Still 18, Bajrang would make his senior level debut at the 2013 Dave Schultz Memorial Invitational where he turned heads on his way to a runner-up finish to Virginia Tech All-American Devin Carter by posting a semifinal win over the United State’s senior world representative Reece Humphrey in the semifinals and 2011 NCAA 133 LB runner-up Andrew Hochstrasser in the second round.
Bajrang would pick up his second senior world medal with a bronze medal showing at the Asian Championships. Losing to eventual champion Ryong-Hak Hwang of North Korea, Bajrang rebounded to take bronze with a win over Shogo Maeda of Japan. With plenty of momentum behind him, and only 19 going into his first senior World Championships, the young Indian talent would face reigning European silver medalist Vladimir Dubov of Bulgaria in his first match. Losing by technical fall to the score of 7-0, Bajrang was given the opportunity to wrestle for a medal when Dubov made the finals, battling back with wins over Shogo Maeda of Japan and Ivan Guidea of Romania. In his culminating match of the World Championships, Bajrang would tech fall Nyam Ochir Enkhsaikhan of Mongolia 9-2.
2014
Coming off the momentum of his 2013 run, Bajrang looked ready to make his name known as one of the premier 61 KG talents in the world. Bajrang would start his 2014 with a series of mixed stateside performances.. Beginning with a 5th place finish at the Dave Schultz Memorial in January after losses to Jason Chamberlain and Boris Novachkov, Bajrang sought to recapture some of his momentum with the world cup and he started off strong with wins Taking matches over 2x European bronze medalist #14 (61) Recep Topal of Turkey and Jimmy Kennedy of the United States. Bajrang would drop a 10-8 match to Volodya Frangulyan of Armenia and a 5-0 shutout loss to eventual world runner-up Masoud Esmaeilpour of Iran and finish his tournament in the fifth place match with a 6-5 loss in a rematch of his 2013 world bronze medal match against Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan of Mongolia. Following his world cup performance, Bajrang wrestled an exhibition match less than a week later against BJ Futrell of the United States which he would lose by fall.
The rest of 2014 would see Bajrang get a quartet of silver medals at the City of Sassari tournament, Commonwealth championships, Asian championships, and Asian Games to Yogeshwar Dutt of India, David Tremblay of Canada, and Masoud Esmaeilpour of Iran. During this run, Bajrang was able to avenge his loss to Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan, defeat world bronze medalists Noriyuki Takatsuka of Japan and Tuvshintulga Tumenbileg of Mongolia and defeat future rival Seung-Chul Lee of Korea.
2015
Bajrang’s 2015 began with early success in the form of a title at the Dave Schultz Memorial Invitational over Russia’s Vladimir Flegontov but Bajrang’s best performance was to come at the world championships in Las Vegas.
Losing in lopsided fashion to eventual runner-up Nomin Batbold of Mongolia in round of 32, Bajrang was pulled into repechage with his first match being against old foe Reece Humphrey of the United States. Denying the dynamic Humphrey of any of his desired ties and pressuring him excellently, Bajrang would use his excellent snatch single to score a big takedown on Humphrey to set up his bent leg turk to secure a pin. His next match would be against European Games runner-up #4 (61) Beka Lomtadze of Georgia. After facing early adversity against the powerful Georgian, Bajrang roared back in the second period opening up the match with a takedown before going right into his bent leg turk to get a series of turns and the fall. In his second career world bronze medal match, Bajrang would fall to surging Ukrainian Vasyl Shuptar, as Shuptar’s positioning, low shots, and savvy would be too much for Punia to overcome. Bajrang would take fifth in his second world championships appearance facing an absolute murderer’s row of competition.
Bajrang concluded 2015 by competing up at 65 KG for the inaugural season of the Indian Pro Wrestling League. He would lose to world silver medalist Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan and his mentor Yogeshwar Dutt.
This is the first of two articles covering Bajrang, with the next one coming out next week. Stay tuned and make sure to catch up on even more of The Fight Site content by subscribing to the Fight Site’s YouTube page and becoming a supporter on Patreon today.