Kaushik Saikumar
MMA Fighter and striking coach
Kaushik Saikumar, growing up in Chennai, India – was always fascinated by fighting and martial arts from a young age.
Having a base in kyokushin karate for more than 8 years, Kaushik transitioned to taekwondo, boxing and muay thai during his high school years. As the MMA community started to grow in India, it was a ‘no-brainer’ for Kaushik to transition to MMA. At the time, realizing the lack of MMA knowledge in India, he and his team – ‘Combat Kinetics’ started to drill and learn grappling and striking concepts from online instructional systems.
With 4+ years of experience in MMA- competing in amateur competition and finishing his degree in Mechanical Engineering, Kaushik decided to make the jump and move to the United States to train MMA full time at the Fifty/50 academy to grow and reach new levels. Two years after arriving in Falls Church, Kaushik received his purple belt from Ryan Hall in September 2023.
Kaushik is currently an assistant instructor in the striking program.
A brief summary of Kaushik’s accomplishments:
2-0 Professional MMA Record
2022 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship Bronze (adult blue featherweight)
Multiple time India IMMAF open MMA National Champion
2018 WMMAA Junior championships (Russia) - bronze
2019 X1 International Featherweight Champion
40+ amateur boxing bouts :
2 time Boxing State ( Tamil Nadu ) Gold medallist