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Can women fight? India’s best answer in MMA ring
X1.In organises an all-women fight card at High Spirits in Pune. Setting it up was not easy
X1.In, an organisation founded in August 2018 comprises Ajit Sigamani, Khriemelie Mehta, and Preksha Jhaveri. Jitendra Khare is technical head.
Involved in promoting Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in India the aim is to “promote and help athletes aspire to the career they have chosen”.
Khare has been a martial artist for 12 years. Khriemelie Mehta and Ajit Sigamani have their own MMA gyms in Dimapur and Chennai, respectively.
“MMA, as a sport, is growing slowly in India. Amateur fighters do not get the platform to showcase their skill. We want to provide these amateur athletes a platform where they can fight and experience the feeling of fighting in a cage,” says Jhaveri, ahead of the all women’s fight night in the city tomorrow at High Spirits, Koregaon Park.
Preksha Jhaveri explains to Oumar Aga the challenge of hosting an all-women fight night and why it is happening in Pune.
What inspired you to come up with an all-women fight card?
I have been training for the past two years, focusing on kickboxing and Muay Thai. You cannot deny the fact that MMA is a male dominated sport. Women consider Martial Arts a form of self-defence. I saw a few female athletes who aspire to fight, and that is what gave me the idea of an all-women fight card. There are four mothers who are training and participating in our competitions. A lot of challenges arose when we decided to host an all-women tournament. Appalling questions like, “Can women even fight?”, surfaced, as a lot of venues were sceptical about hosting the event. A popular sports club in Mumbai backed out at the last minute as they were unsure about how the event will pull attention without even a single men’s bout.
It was a struggle to get sponsors as well, due to the same reason. We managed to pull off the event, but I was shocked to see the reactions we received when the idea was pitched.
Why Pune as a venue?
We started our journey with Pune. The very first event we hosted on August 1, 2018 was in Pune. X1 International marks its anniversary in August and what better place to celebrate it than the city where it all began?
We are aiming to do three events in Pune, every year, mainly because the response in the city is very good. The audience is genuinely interested in watching our fights and that is why we picked Pune as our venue
Are you an amateur or a professional promotion company?
At some level, we want to be pro and amateur both, but as of now we are still concentrating on amateur.
What sets you apart from other MMA organisations?
Unlike other organisations, we don’t charge any registration fee from athletes who want to sign up. Whenever there is a X1 International Tournament, we pay for basic expenses like travel, stay and food. We also make it a point that we do not limit any athletes to our competitions only. They are free to fight in any league they want. Being athletes ourselves, we know the challenges we faced and we don’t want our recruits to face the same challenges.
How do the fighters reach the international stage considering the fact that MMA does not have state or national selection tournaments?
The records of these athletes keep on improving with the number of fights and competitions they participate in. Due to the absence of a proper selection committee for this sport, any fighter can participate in any state or national tournament. A fighter is required to show his or her record before participating in these tournaments. Building a record is a tad difficult here, because there are not a lot of MMA events taking place in the country, as of now.
How many different fighters have fought in X1 International Tournaments?
We have travelled across India and we have hosted 10 events, till date. Usually, each tournament has 10 or 12 bouts. So, approximately, there have been at least 150 different fighters who have participated in our tournaments, so far.
