The MMA Digest

Daniel Isaac talks MMA and UFC expansion to India

With more males between the ages of 18-34 in India than there are people in North America, the eastern nation is fertile ground for a potential MMA event put on the UFC. The country is part of Zuffa’s global plan, and we had a chance to speak with MMA pioneer in India, Daniel Isaacs, about the potential market for MMA in the nation. Isaacs runs Tigers Gym. 

The UFC is interested in coming to India. With over 300 million males 18 to 34 in India that’s staggering.
But those are just statistics, business statistics. Not usually practically applicable. (smiles) I’ve been here at ground zero for a while now and i know how difficult it is to promote a sport which is not understood.

How are things different in other parts of the world?

The difference with Japan , Europe and the US is that they went through the ‘evolution’ period during the early UFCs; that hasnt happened here nationally as yet.

How is MMA perceived in India?

People on an average still think that the Great Khali is a ‘great’ fighter. (smiles) And they also think that Jackie Chan, Jet Lie are the greatest fghters that ever lived. (laughs)  Stuff like that. But seriously I would love to sit down with the UFC scouts who plan to come down to India and get their foundation laid. Because that would help solve many problems that they would face. You know you can sell anything in India, I mean anything, but you need to have a good understanding of the people and culture locally.

Such as?

The degree of corruption for starters. And most importantly  the red tapism and monopoly card played by the ‘recognised’ sports authorities who dont want something like MMA to get in. That’s why I say that the UFC people need to talk to us before they get excited about India. It’s very different here, people are such that they will bow down to a stone idol and give a 10 million donation to the temple, yet they wouldn’t wanna support an orphanage because they think that someones eating the money. Very varied kind of people here great people nevertheless, but different. I love my India. (smiles)

And of course theres the God of all sports in India…Cricket !
And the God of our entertainment …..Bollywood. But there’s definately a way MMA can enter India, on a large sca
le.

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Inisde MMA on MMA scene in India

 Inside MMA is your opportunity to step inside the world of mixed martial arts and find out what it takes to be a champion. Hosts Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice provide all the latest news and highlights, along with features, analysis, and rankings.

This week:

Sat., Aug. 16th      3:00 PM ET

Join Bas and special host Ron Kruck for an exclusive interview with recently-crowned WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko. Guests include Ultimate Fighter 7 winner Amir Sadollah, CBS Sports.com writer Gary Herman, and 16-2 middleweight fighter Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann, with details on his upcoming fight with Nate Marquardt, at UFC 88. The expert panel will review UFC 87, as well as discuss the latest news and rankings. This week’s highlights showcase a rare look at MMA fights from India, and as always, Bas will go “Toe-To-Toe” with viewer’s emails.
Sat., Aug. 16th     7:00 PM ET     Join Bas and special host Ron Kruck for an exclusive interview with recently-crowned WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko. Guests include Ultimate Fighter 7 winner Amir Sadollah, CBS Sports.com writer Gary Herman, and 16-2 middleweight fighter Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann, with details on his upcoming fight with Nate Marquardt, at UFC 88. The expert panel will review UFC 87, as well as discuss the latest news and rankings. This week’s highlights showcase a rare look at MMA fights from India, and as always, Bas will go “Toe-To-Toe” with viewer’s emails.

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“deadly impact” MMA event in India

From Tigers International Fight Team India:

Mixed Martial Arts action hits Nasik city as a new series of MMA shows begins with event no # 1 on 24th august at Raje Sambhaji Stadium.Being entitled “Deadly Impact” , the first show features an all star fightcard with 12 of the best fighters representing every region of India will square off one on one against each other with the most common set of martial arts rules … MMA rules.
Speaking to the press chief event co-ordinator and promoter Mr Atul Bhalerao said “MMA is famous worldwide and in the US and Japan it literally has a cult following , superceding even the mainstream sport of boxing in spectator statistics.We too have many talented MMA athletes and Deadly Impact has been promoted with the motive of providing these top athletes with the fight / job opportunities that they wouldn’t receive anywhere else in India since for these fighters , slugging it out in the ring is just another day at the office”.
Director of Action Entertainment Milind Shirsath says “Nasik has to gear up for some top-knotch fight action as these shows are going to keep spectators absolutely on the edge of their seats.In all there will be 6 bouts , 1 bout with kickboxing rules and 5 bouts with MMA rules.”
Bout no # 1 [kickboxing rules] will feature 70 kgs Sunil Khakalari of Nagaland against Sumit Tickoo of New Delhi.Sunil is a veteran fighter and in 2005 fought against a british fighter for the WKL world kickboxing title.Sumit is the student of edgar noordanus , himself a kickboxing veteran who has been featured on numerous tv shows nationwide.
Bout no # 2 Abhijeet Petkar of Mumbai faces Javed Mulla of Sangli in the 85kg MMA rules fight , Javed gave Abhijeet a tough time in their first bout a few months ago and both fighters want to prove a point in this highly anticipated re-match.In November 2007 Abhijeet represented India at the World Muay Thai Title fight in dar-es-salaam Tanzania.
Bout no # 3 Shafiq-ur-rehman of Mumbai , 68 kgs undefeated MMA champion since 2004 takes on his next challenger Binod Sharma , who is a nationally ranked judo player.
Bout no # 4, 85 kgs Bhupesh Kamble , fitness trainer of the stars , from Mumbai faces Sreejith from Calicut Kerela , a state champion in wrestling and boxing.
Bout no # 5, the co-main event is an all star international bout as 75 kgs Martin Hensch from the USA will take on Iranian wrestling star Mohammed Mariwani.”We are sure that this bout will have all the international attention , atleast from Bush and Ahmedinajad” said Mukesh Sonowane , media co-ordinator and director of Action entertainment.
Bout no # 6 , the highly anticipated main event fight will be between Iran Daido Juku champion Alireza Khoshlesan against hometown hero , veteran mma fighter , international star and teacher at Wisdom High , Alan Fenandes.

Deadly Impact MMA is an event created to accommodate combat atheletes from all the various fighting disciplines , karate , judo , kickboxing , boxing , wrestling and jiu-jitsu , the only platform where you can witness WWE type action accompanied with all the top production of hype , special effects and fireworks , the only difference being that the WWE is choreographed fighting whereas MMA is real fighting.

Action entertainment welcomes all Nasik fight fans to come and be a part of this pioneering show which begins at 5pm on 24th August.

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Dana White interview at UFC 87 Presser

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Dana White and UFC looking at Phillipines, Germany and India

The UFC is furthering expansion plans and looking at furthering ground in Europe and exploring Asia. “We’re looking at the Phillippines, we’re looking at Germany. In India right now there’s 300 million males 18-to-34. We’re going everywhere”, noted White to Yahoo.

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Quoteworthy: UFC in India one day?

“Think about this for a second: India has 350 million men between the ages of 18 and 34, and that’s our key demographic. The magnitude of these markets is staggering.”

–Lorenzo Fertitta speaking to Yahoo Sports

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UFC’s big announcement

The big announcement from the UFC is Lorenzo Fertitta will step down as president of Station Casinos to focus on expanding the UFC internationally. Increased focus on international development in Asia will be part of the casino mogul’s strategy for worldwide penetration.

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Nasik, India’s Tigers Gym dominates 2008 Asian MMA Championships

Photos Courtesy of Tigers Gym

Nasik, India - The fighters from Tiger’s Gym in Nasik scored impressive the wins at the 2nd Asian Open amateur mma championships, held at Balkawde indoor stadium on May 16. The event was attended hoards of MMA enthusiasts and martial arts fighters from all over the country, including West Bengal , Tamil Nadu , Karnataka and Kerala. The 1st Asian Open amateur MMA championships was successfully held last year at Fravashi International Academy , Gangapur Nasik. The All India Combat Sports Federation[AICSF] and the All India Kickboxing Council [AIKC] both have headquarters in Nasik and jointly host national and international MMA events in India.

International and National fighters arrived in Nasik road on the 14th of May and the official weigh-ins and rules meetings
were held at the tigers gym office nasik road on the 15th which was presided by the organizing committee led by
Jitu Jain [AICSF event co-ordinator] and Shyam Godse [AIKC gen secretary].Vice President of the AICSF, Lorelei Isaac, welcomed the fighters and team managers at the official rules meeting. AICSF safety and medical team led by chief of med dept  Dr S Rajasab of West Bengal expained the importance of safety to the fighters attending the event.

Advocate Gorakhnath Balkawde and MMA pioneer Daniel Isaac led the fighters at the opening ceremony as the 200 plus fighters sang the National Anthem. The amateur MMA championships were held on the 15th & 16th May from 11am-6m during which aspiring amateur MMA fighters competed and gave their best to prove that they are the best amateur MMA fighters in India. Aslam Nabilal Nadaf of the Sangli Muay Thai gym defeated Ghumare Moreshwar of Bulls gym Nasik in a hard fought technical bout to win 54-57kg category. Andrew Canday of Bulls Gym Nasik defeated Suresh Yadav of the Howrah Top Team , Andrew finished the fight in 45 seconds of the opening bell by submitting
Yadav via rear naked choke. Swapnil Barve of Tigers Gym lost to Devendra Surendra Gharwadve of Busawal boxers in the finals of the K1 kickboxing event.

On the 17th of May “Clash of the Champions - Fight Night” was held featuring some of the top professional MMA fighters from India.
This event is usually held following every Asian Open MMA event to give inspiration to up and coming amateur fighters since the fight card of this event always features top MMA stars who represent India on the Asian world MMA stage.

Bhupesh Kamble [Tigers gym] defeated B Umashankar [Chennai Muay Thai] by first round KO in the heavyweight K1 rules bout.
Abhijeet Petkar[Tigers gym] defeated Javed Zamir Mulla [Sangli Muay Thai Gym] in an exciting 3 round heavyweight fight.
Sandeep Tayade [Tigers Gym] defeated champion fighter of the Sangli Muay Thai gym Parkash Shreepati Awale in a closely fought 3 round battle and “Superkick” Shafiq-ur-rehman [Tigers gym] defeated challenger Ajay Ghodajkar [Sangli Muay Thai] by submitting him with an armbar within 30 seconds of the first round. Ajay Ghodajkar is the 2007-2008 WAKO Pro[India] 65 kgs champion and was sent as a special rep fighter of WAKO Pro [India] to challenge the COTC champion Shafiq.

The Tigers gym team of both amateur and pro fighters was coached by Indian MMA star Alan “The Bull” Fenandes.

Opening ceremony

Bhupesh Kamble wins K1 rules heavyweight category

Action from - Sandeep Tayade vs Suresh Yadav

action from Javed Mulla vs Ratul Mukherjee

Moreshwar vs Aslam Nadaf

More pictures here

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Asian Open Amateur MMA 2008 in India


The All India Combat Sports Federation All India Kickboxing Council will be jointly hosting the 2008 Asian Open Amateur MMA and Muay Thai Championships, held at the Tigers indoor stadium in Nasik India on May 16 and 17. The stadium is home to the Tigers fight team and Tigers gym. Approximately 200 enthusiastic martial artists from various backgrounds including judo , jiu-jitsu , wrestling , kusthi , karate , kickboxing , muay thai and taekwondo will participate in this one of a kind MMA tournament in India.Presently there are 3 main MMA events held in India ‘

1]The Tigers gym open - which is an event organized to locate upcoming mma talent from the various cities in India

2]The Asian Open Amateur MMA & Muay Thai Championships - which gives amateur fighters experience to prepare for the bigger league in India and

3]The Clash of the Champions [COTC] - the professional mma league for India.This amateur mma event is open to all interested mma players who are looking to gain amateur mma fight experience. All those interested to participate may request an invitation , rules and regulations and weight categories list by email tigersgym@gmail.com www.tigersgym.com

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