Bashir “Somchai” Ahmad needs to turn his professional fighting career around. This much he knows.

The Godfather of Pakistani MMA plans to snap an unlucky two-fight skid on Friday Night, 7 October, when he squares off against Egyptian featherweight Mahmoud Mohamed at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar.

“Every fight is important, but this fight is extremely important to get back on the winning track,” the 33-year-old says. “I feel like I got off the path I was on, and this will put me back on it.”

In preparation for his upcoming bout with the Egyptian Top Team standout, Bashir left the cozy confines of his newly expanded Lahore, Pakistan-based Synergy Fitness & MMA Club to train at Team Quest Thailand in Chiang Mai.

Although “Somchai” has been consistently tightening up his technique and adding new tricks to his already impressive skill set, he feels like something has finally clicked. He has been effectively mixing all of his techniques together during training camp, and trusts that it will translate from the gym to the cage.

“I would say the biggest improvement is putting everything together and doing the things I want to do during the fight, in the fight,” Bashir explains. “A lot of times you’ll train one way, and in the fight it doesn’t look the same, and I feel that gap has been closing. I feel the things I can do are going to surface, which is why I look forward to showing people, and myself most importantly, how I’ve improved.

“Other than that, improvement comes everywhere in life — footwork, striking, wrestling, and jiujitsu as well. I just don’t feel any of this is going to help the guy. I feel everything has improved so much that if I don’t get him with jiuitsu, then I’ll get him with something else.”

Clearly, ‘the guy’ he is referring to is Mahmoud.

Training out of Egyptian Top Team, Mahmoud is a kickboxer and wrestler who, similar to Bashir, holds a 3-3-1 record and is on a two-fight losing streak. The 37-year-old Cairo native made his ONE Championship debut this past January when he was tapped out by featherweight prodigy Christian Lee at ONE: CLASH OF HEROES.

While Bashir is quick to admit he isn’t overly familiar with his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, he isn’t taking him for granted. “I don’t know too much about him. I’m basing everything off the fight I’ve seen with Christian Lee, which is a tough fight for anybody,” he says.

“I feel I’m expecting an aggressive guy, somebody who is going to take it to me, and he looks pretty strong as well. I feel I’m technically better than him, but often times the best counter to technique is strength, so that’s something I’m keeping in mind.”

“Somchai” is always mindful of everything around him, which is why he has been so successful inside the cage and out.

After spending most of his life in the United States, Bashir returned to Pakistan in 2009 with the desire to promote mixed martial arts and lead a movement in his birth nation. Immediately, he rented an apartment above a real estate business, and that space doubled as his personal home and the nation’s first MMA Gym. It was dubbed ‘The Office,’ and it was the beginning of MMA in the region.

Soon, he opened an official training facility called Synergy Fitness & MMA Club, co-founded PAKMMA alongside Mahmood Rahman, former guitarist of rock band Overload, and made his professional fighting debut in 2012 where he defeated Mohammad Arshad in 21 seconds with a rear-naked choke.

However, a lot has changed since making his pro fighting debut.

PAKMMA, for instance, has grown from its original intention as a rallying cry for the advancement of the sport nationally to a full-blown organization serving as a homegrown fight promotion, a community news center, an athletic regulating body of sorts, and a training ground for referees and officials.

“There’s always new development, but it’s on a constant upward trajectory — from where we first started to now, what a milestone would be five years ago is totally different,” Bashir explains. “We have a number of fighters competing internationally. We have myself, that has become quite popular in Pakistan. I’m not Conor McGregor, but at the same time, I’ve almost broken the crust and have gotten into the mainstream. Same with MMA, now it is breaking through.

“We can’t call it a mainstream sport yet,” he continues. “But at the same time — and this is my speculation — it’s probably, in terms of attendance and following, second to cricket domestically because Pakistan doesn’t have that many sports. There are more people following the English Premier League than MMA in Pakistan, but as far as domestic events and athletes, it’s second to cricket. It’s far behind cricket, but it’s still pretty big.”

Also, Synergy Fitness & MMA Club continues to grow leaps and bounds, as it just expanded to accommodate even more people. The featherweight also has a 10-month-old son, who watches him train at Team Quest Thailand. “He’s already going up on the mats,” Bashir says with a chuckle.

The pioneer, however, has had mixed results inside the cage. He stormed his way to a 3-1 record by the end of 2014, but had trouble in the bouts that followed. “Somchai” took a fight on three days notice against Amir Khan at ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS, flew immediately from the United States to the Philippines, and cut 8kg in a matter of hours. Although he lost the fight due to a doctor’s stoppage, he had some bright points in the match where he delivered several heavy shots, which wobbled his Singaporean opponent numerous times.

Nearly a year later, he battled Jimmy Yabo at ONE: TRIBE OF WARRIORS in February 2015, charged at him with a few overaggressive combinations, and got knocked out 21 seconds into the contest with an unsuspecting right hook.

To say the loss affected him would be an understatement. “It was definitely,” he begins, before his voice trails off, “I choose words carefully because ‘devastating’ should mean it bothers me, but it doesn’t bother me now. I feel every fight is a learning experience and I need it to help me grow, but it was definitely embarrassing. It was a really rough loss, but that’s because winning is important to me. I think it’s normal to have whatever feelings I was having and afterwards, because I was so confident I was going to win.

“So yeah, it was tough, but that’s the way the sport is,” he continues. “After a lot of reflection, I realized two important things. One, I feel that me, myself, as a fighter, I represent overcoming adversity and I think having a loss like that is representative of that, so it’s something for me to overcome and I embrace that. On the other side of it, the support I got from everyone in the PAKMMA community was so great, it made me realize that fighting is not all I am, it’s what I do, and I have so many things to be grateful for.”

Ahmad, a BJJ purple belt with heavy hands, ever-evolving Muay Thai kickboxing skills, and strong grappling, has put the past behind him. In fact, he is excited to fight in front of the lively Yangon crowd, display his reinvigorated style and get back on the winning track.

The Pakistani’s only other wish is for his opponent to test him. “I hope he brings out the best in me, and him bringing out the best of me is probably not good for him,” Ahmad says with a chuckle. “I think that’s the best case scenario — he brings out the best in me and I expect the victory, but maybe we both can look good in the process.”

ONE Championship lead commentator and Fox Sports Presenter Steve Dawson gives his take on this championship showdown between two of the best strawweights in the world.

Myanmar gets treated to a duel for the ONE Strawweight World Title at ONE: STATE OF WARRIORS on Friday, 7 October.

Naito is the champion, having dethroned Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in Bangkok, Thailand, five months ago. His rear-naked choke win late in the fourth round was a big party spoiler for the Thai fighter, who was headlining ONE Championship’s first visit to his home country.

It took Naito’s record to 11-0, but the Japanese fighter won’t be the only unbeaten fighter in this contest.

Pacio, a 20-year-old from the Philippines, is 8-0 and this will be his third fight in the ONE cage. With three KOs and five submissions, Pacio has never been taken the distance.

Against the Thai wrestling champion Kritsada Kongsrichai, it wasn’t a dominant win by any means. But in an all-action contest, the Team Lakay fighter grappled tirelessly to win by rear naked choke late in the first round and earn his shot for the belt at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon.

Lakay fighters have been on an unreal tear in recent times after a slump that needed head coach Mark Sangiao’s masterful intervention. After Pacio’s challenge, his thoughts will move ahead to the showdown in Singapore between Team Lakay’s flagship fighter Eduard Folayang and ONE Lightweight World Champion Shinya Aoki.

Naito’s victory over Dejdamrong was a thrilling affair, after a good opening round for the Thai man, the Japanese developed a slight edge over the first ten minutes according to my colleague Rich Franklin’s unofficial scorecard at cageside. After a close third round, Naito still had Franklin’s call by a razor-thin margin. But it was the fourth stanza that made all the difference.

After catching a long head kick, Naito worked his man to the ground, and after a draining grappling battle, he eventually submitted Dejdamrong.

With Naito now 32 years old, there is a 12-year age difference between these two, and it’s likely to work in Naito’s favour. Pacio isn’t yet all that he can be, while Naito’s experience and generally higher level should take care of the youngster’s tenacity, probably via submission.

Somewhere, Dejdamrong will be waiting, watching and badgering Matt Hume for a shot at being the first man to hold the strawweight title twice, sometime in 2017.

Steve Dawson is ONE Championship’s lead commentator, a Fox Sports presenter and an author of sporting biographies. He can be found on Twitter & Instagram as @Gulasahi and on Facebook as Steve Dawson.