MMA: Super Fight League to make its India debut on Sunday

MUMBAI: India's first professionally organised mixed martial arts fighting league, the Super Fight League (SFL), promoted by Bollywood megastar Sanjay Dutt and NRI businessman Raj Kundra, will get going on Sunday. Book tickets for SFL | ScheduleKundra, husband of actress Shilpa Shetty and owner of Rajasthan's IPL team, has got together with Dutt to give Indian mixed martial artists a platform to compete along with talented fighters from different parts of the world. Sunday's event will be followed by events in Chandigarh (April 7) and New Delhi (May 6). Based on SFL rules adopted across the United States and othercountries that regulate martial arts, SFL fights are contested over threefive-minute rounds. It covers six weight classes from feather to heavyweight.Kundra said India is an action-hungry country and this prompted himto launch the sport here. He said there was huge potential in Indiafor mixed martial arts, which is a full combat sport comprising 36 differentstyles of fighting including karate, judo and kung-fu. "There is somuch potential. There are so many fighters from every corner of India that I canproduce and why not put them onto a platform so that one day they become wellknown internationally as well," he said. He said he wants to injectmore Indian blood into the event, especially in the women's category."I am waiting to introduce Indian female fighters, whom I amcurrently training. I have four of them at the camp at the moment and I willunveil them very soon," Kundra said. The Indian fighters are beingtrained at a camp in Nashik. At present Ukrainian Lena and Serbian Sanja are thetwo women athletes in the sporting event. The inaugural event in Mumbai will see five Indian fighters in various weight categories, taking on five mixed martial arts fighters, which would be followed by the main event -- a super heavy duel between United Kingdom's James Thompson and Bob Sapp of the United States. Kundra, in a lighter vein, said the sport isorganised street fight with two well-trained athletes pitted against each other.The league has signed up over 50 international fighters who willalso train players in the country, Kundra said and added that they have beensigning new athletes every month. "We keep signing players who havepotential. Every month we keep signing 4-5 players. So we will keep growingthis," he said. The mixed martial arts industry is valued at $2.2billion in the US and is the fastest growing sport there. "It's asport that has taken over boxing, wrestling, taekwondo, judo. This decides whothe best fighter is in the world than any other sport," Kundra said.Asked if people would perceive this to be a stage-managed event likewrestling, he said, "We have to make it change because that's the only way wecan get the market. If people think we are staged then it is not going to dowell. But I think the audience when they come and see the first punch in theface, they are going to realise that it is not staged." Kundra saidhe would invest Rs 100 crore over the next three years in theventure.The Super Fight League has tied up with Google's popularvideo sharing website YouTube and Viacom 18's Colors. "Youtube iswatched all over the world and with most of the athletes coming from around theworld we expect to get a lot of hits. In future we plan to make it paid viewwith India being free online and the rest of the world paying for it," he said.After the first three events, there will be a two month break beforeresuming in other cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.The grand finale will be held in December with the two best in everyweight category vying for championship belt. The fighters will go ateach other for three five-minute rounds in which the judges would decide thewinner if neither of them is knocked out or has 'tapped out' (quits). It wouldbe the referee's job to stop a fight if one of the fighters is unable to defendhimself.