The Great Gama Biography

Great Gama was one of the greatest wrestlers that India has ever produced, the Great Gama or Ghulam Muhammad won the old country version of World Heavyweight Championship in the year 1910. An invincible wrestler, Gama was beaten only once in his life time and that is also by his own disciple Joachim Valentine.
Great Gama was born in 1888 in Amritsar, Punjab. He came from a family of renowned wrestlers. His father Aziz and brother Imam were also well known wrestlers of their time. Competent and confident, Gama became the Indian Champion in 1909 and set out to conquer the world.

Gama, Imam and R.B. Benjamin went to tour the European continent. During the tour, Gama defeated many world famous wrestlers like Sweden’s Jesse Paterson, the French Maurice Deriaz, America’s Benjamin Roller etc.

The World Champion Polish wrestler, Zbyszco managed a controversial draw with him. However, much later he was outclassed in just 21 seconds in another match against Gama, this time in India.

The Great Gama challenged other claimants of the world wrestling title. The list included Russia’s Hackenschmidt, Japan’s Taro Miyake and America’s Frank Gotch. However no one dared to fight against Gama and he returned to the country unbeaten.

Apart from his solitary defeat, Gama had won almost 5000 matches. He passed away at Lahore in 1953.