MMA has gained popularity in the country over the years but lack of promoters and therefore choices, remain a challenge.
Bloodshed. Caged fights. Lethal moves. Gone are the days when Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) were known only for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Indian MMA players are now getting recognition in the country, but has few promoters.
The game has gained much popularity in the last few years. The first time MMA made its presence felt in India was in 2019 when it managed to get a sports viewership share of 0.3 per cent which is higher than tennis, racing, and basketball. Celebrities like Tiger Shroff are now promoting the sport. Along with the central government, various states now have MMA associations— Karnataka, Chattisgarh, West Bengal among others. But there is another side to the story.
To make a better career in the MMA world, many are choosing to leave the country to train and play at places with more facilities.
MMA fighters say it is the thrill of the sport that attracted them to take it up professionally. Gurtej Singh, an MMA fighter started his journey eight years ago and didn’t find many opportunities because of lack of tournaments. “I came to know about MMA because of UFC only and got trained professionally for it. But there were very few tournaments in the country. Many young boys who want to make their career in MMA are going to countries like Thailand to get better exposure.
After fighting for a few years, I started getting some money and could afford to travel from one place to another. I won a few local tournaments and got a contract from Matrix Fight Night (MFN),” said Gurtej.
MFN is an Indian professional mixed martial arts promotion Company. It is owned and operated by Hindi film actor Tiger Shroff, his sister Krishna Shroff and his mother Ayesha Shroff.
Experts in the game say that the game is getting popular because of three main reasons—greater acceptance of the game, the popularity of UFC and easier distribution or dissemination of content because of social media. Rahul Chhabra, alias, Voice of Indian MMA said, “A few years ago MMA- the caged fight was banned in many places but now with it getting more popular across the world, even France has legalised it. Caged fight –MMA, which is very different from other fighting sports has been attracting audience from across the world and its popularity in India is also growing at a fast pace.”
Chhabra also said that in countries like India, there is still room for the growth of the sport. Several requirements need to be fulfilled to give the game its due in the country. “A healthy competition is very much needed to expand the sport in the country. It is however, not easy to run a promotion for UFC. One needs to have sponsors and broadcasting rights to run in the first place. But if all these needs are met with, MMA will surely become the big thing in India,” Chhabra said.
According to MMA India, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a mix of six contemporary Olympic sports – boxing, freestyle wrestling, Greco Roman wrestling, Tae Kwan Do, judo and karate. Launched in 1993, The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) popularized the concept of MMA in the world. In 2014, International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) introduced the first world Unified Amateur MMA Rules.
