Ok, since Google has done a doodle for his birthday today and some ppl are wondering who he is, gather around children, it is storytime. A story that starts with a secret. Superheroes do exist in real life. Well one did.
Meet Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt AKA The Great Gama.
But who was Gama?
One way of answering is to say he was the greatest wrestler that has ever lived, maybe the most formidable unarmed combatant to ever live, but put it this way, an entire armed mob intent on mass murder once fled him in mortal terror. More on that in a bit.
Did I say he was a wrestler? That's not quite right. He was THE wrestler. He specialised in the subcontinental style called pehelwani, which is extremely demanding.
And Gama was extremely good.
How good? Well, he started in 1895 and wrestled all the way till 1952(or 1955, depending on source). In this time he fought basically every wrestler(and many non wrestlers) of note across the world. Reportedly over 5000 fights.
In these 50 years of bouts, Gama lost 0 times.
I'm going to repeat that- in a fighting career of over 50 years in two separate centuries that included him going country to country challenging famous fighters to face him, Gama lost 0 fights
What kind of behemoth of a man does this you ask?
A 5'7" behemoth, actually.