The Great Gama
Rahim Sultaniwala was one of the most famous wrestlers of India at the turn of the 20th century. He stood more than 7 feet tall weighing 130 kilograms. He was a tough fighter. He defeated his challengers with ease. As he held the title of ‘Champion of India’, many wrestlers tried to snatch the title over the years. At a certain point of time in his carrier, he was considered as unbeatable.
In 1902, Sultaniwala was challenged by a 19-year old wrestler named Ghulam Mohammed. The fight was organized in Junagarh. It was witnessed by Nawab himself and his courtiers. Sultaniwala showed aggression form the start of the match. However, the teenager blocked all his attempts to overcome him. Finally, the match was stopped after an hour. The contest ended in a draw.
This encounter resulted into the emergence of Ghularn Mohammad, also called ‘Gama’. After the epic fight with Sultaniwala, prominent wrestlers of the sun-continent contested Gama. He defeated them all. In 1910, Gama set sail for England with other wrestlers with an eye to win World Championship.
Initially not much importance was given to Gama in England. Finally, a match was arranged between him and an American Wrestler Doc Roller. Gama succeeded in defeating him in no time.
His next fight was against a leading wrestler from Poland named Stanislaus Zbyszho. He was known to possess a vast knowledge of holds that could impose great pain over the opponent. In 1910, both fought the World Championship battle in London. Stanislaus found that Gama was too fast and shrewd to be caught. He also had some dangerous holds that were not easy to be freed. Fearing defeat, Stanislaus adopted the strategy of falling to the floor and hugging the mat. This prevented Gama from applying his strongholds on him. After nearly three hours, the match was declared a draw by the referee. As Stanislaus failed to show up for a rematch in the coming week, the match was awarded to Gama.
The great Gama also defeated many best wrestlers of the world at that time including European champion Johann Lemm and French champion Maurice Deriaz. In 1933, he returned to India demonstrating that he was one of the greatest wrestlers of the world. However, Gama always said that the only wrestler who had come close to defeat him was Sultaniwala.
After conquering the championship of India, Gama fought all challengers until none remained. He is the only wrestler not to have been defeated even once in his entire carrier.