ONE Championship’s Agilan Thangalapani (or Thani for short) used mixed martial arts to help him lose 130 pounds.
“I was very fat when I started training in martial arts at the age of 13,” Thani said when telling his story to ONE Championship. “Back then, I started with karate, but I did not manage to lose weight because I had very bad eating habits.”
Pictures of Thani’s weight loss can be seen below.
“At the age of 16, I started training in other martial arts, but not because I was getting teased, bullied, or picked on. It was because of a Chinese movie called SPL: Sha Po Lang, which starred Donnie Yen. In the movie, there was a fight scene that caught my attention. It got me fascinated with martial arts. I started to research the types of martial arts that Donnie Yen used.”
Eventually, Thani started taking Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu classes. Shortly after, he started to lose weight. However, he still had bad eating habits and wasn’t in fighting shape.
“At the age of 18, I started to work in Monarchy MMA in return for free classes. Smart, right? I was told by my boss and coach Samir [Mrabet] that if I wanted to work there, I had to be in shape, so I combined my training with an easy and friendly diet with the help of some professionals.”
Thani continued to lose weight and realized he wanted to be a fighter. At just 21 years old, Thani is undefeated with six wins.
Thani is currently scheduled to fight ONE Welterweight Champion Ben Askren at ONE Championship: Dynasty of Heroes on May 26 in Singapore. 
