Launching new cash-rich sporting leagues seems to be the trend. Joining the bandwagon are entrepreneur Raj Kundra and actor Sanjay Dutt, although they enter a completely virgin market.
Launching new cash-rich sporting leagues seems to be the trend. Joining the bandwagon are entrepreneur Raj Kundra and actor Sanjay Dutt, although they enter a completely virgin market.
The two have launched a mixed martial arts (MMA) tournament, Super Fight League (SFL), on Monday. MMA is a contact sport, which allows a fighter to use both grappling and striking techniques. It includes several forms of martial arts such as boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, taekwondo, karate and judo.
The first season kicks off in March 11 at the Andheri Sports Complex here. The second round will be held in Chandigarh on April 7 and the final round will be conducted in New Delhi on May 6.
Kundra said that the MMA is a multi-billion dollar industry in North America and is also famous in Japan and Brazil.
“Indians anyway like action and what can be bigger than this? The idea struck me when I was in USA and I got in touch with (SFL CEO) Ken Pavla, who is helping us establish the league here,” Kundra said.
Pavla, a US-based sports agent, represents around 55 MMA fighters and has assured the participation of top players from the world. While Pavla will be in charge of the international fighters and look after the league’s technical aspects, India’s first kickboxing world champion Daniel Isaac will be training and scouting the Indian fighters.
“It’s a very safe sport, though we use minimum protective gears. There will be some blood and bruises, but nothing major ,” Pavla said.
There are six weight groups in which the bouts will be held: heavyweight (+93.6kg), light heavyweight (93.6kg), middleweight (84.1kg), welterweight (77.3kg), lightweight (70.5kg), featherweight (65.9kg). The inaugural bout in Mumbai will have six Indians from all weight categories taking on the international fighters followed by a fight between super heavyweight champions James Thomson and Bob Sapp.
Kundra claimed to have formed a Federation of Mixed Martial Arts, which is headed by Abhay Singh Chautala.
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