New Delhi: It’s 6.30 am. Jason Solomon steps out barefoot in the sprawling lawn of his house in Delhi’s Golf Links—one of the plushest addresses in the national capital.
“Mornings are for stretching and earthing—connecting with the Earth’s electrons that have massive physiological benefits. It’s a sync between mind, body and soul,” he says.
A few hundred kilometers north, Angad Bisht too follows a morning routine which on most days, includes a run up to the local temple in Dehradun on the Himalayan foothills. Unlike Delhi’s Golf Links, the surroundings here are more communal, the forests seamless, and fewer signs of human intervention.
“When you grow up surrounded by the environment, regular life makes you so hardy that fighting in a cage seems easy. The scale of comparison becomes different,” says Angad.
Disparate as their socioeconomic backgrounds may appear, Jason and Angad have one thing that binds them—they’re both professional fighters from India. Both get paid to step into an octagonal cage against an opponent for a one vs one matchup that combines wrestling, boxing, kick-boxing and submission wrestling—the cocktail referred to as Mixed Martial Arts or MMA. It is also one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
As a combat sport with a violent past and obscure beginnings, MMA has come a long way. The sport in its modern form started in the late 1990s in the United States, where combatants from various disciplines fought with very few rules to find the most effective unarmed combat.
It now has official regulatory bodies, sanctioned referees and gyms in most countries. It is widely televised, has one of the highest viewership of any live event owing to a large fanbase across the world, including India. It generates millions of dollars in revenue.
Matches or fights today are usually three rounds of five minutes each after which judges scoring the contest ascertain a winner. This is unless one opponent either submits, knocks them out using kicks or punches, or renders them incapable to continue the fight—referred to as a technical knockout.
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Sport that normalises ‘hardships’
There isn’t a textbook definition of an ideal fighter and their background, but many of the known faces in Indian MMA are either from rural agrarian places across the country or from mountainous regions.
“It’s the hunger to build a name for themselves combined with a life of physical work in the fields or hills,” popular MMA analyst Andrew Lu says on why people from rural or hilly areas generally do better in sports than those from urban localities.
Born in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag, Angad Bisht attributes his career trajectory to discipline, hard life and natural environment up in the mountains. “Our life in the mountains—a cold water bath at 6 am, going to school in snowfall, or physical activities in harsh weather conditions—simply normalised hardships for us,” he says, reflecting on his life as a youngster.
“Due to my upbringing, I’ve never had a cardio issue in a fight or during training and I feel that is a big physical edge over my opponents. In fact, even the fights that I have lost, I haven’t been beaten mentally or physically, I’ve just been outclassed in skillset by my opponents”, he adds.
But Angad does emphasise that it’s not just physical abilities, but also the mindset and consistency that matter. “I used to be a gym trainer, so I built my physique, but there was no ‘next’ after that. First time I trained in fighting was when my ego broke and I realised how tough this is,” he adds candidly.
Jason Ramesh Solomon seems to be everything that isn’t this conventional perception of a fighter. And yet he’s one of the most popular faces of Indian MMA. He fought in the very first promotions in India (in 2013), and has been fighting ever since with reasonable success.
He comes from a respectable business family, is financially well-off and is a passout of The British School in Delhi with a business degree from the US.
Asked how a comfortable life goes alongside a career as a fighter, he says, “Well, leaving aside the comforts, one at least has to be athletically oriented and into some sort of physically-exerting sports, which I always was. I never really enjoyed the academic side of education.”
“For me, fighting was born out of passion not necessity, and that’s why I feel I am good at it,” he adds.
Jason, who also has a degree in marketing from the US, actually started looking at fighting as a business on his return in 2012.
“I saw a gap in the market since India, at the time, didn’t have any fighting promotion or a league. I wanted to start my own league but I didn’t have the resources or networks to do it, so I linked up with the only people who were doing it at that time”, he says referring to the Super Fight League (SFL).
Primeval nature of fighting
On the general perception of the sport, Jason says the sport in its nascent form goes back to ancient times and the Roman gladiatorial arenas. “People, of course, might think it is violent, but they also tend to enjoy a fight everywhere in the world. It is primeval and instinctive. And in truth, MMA and cage fighting actually give you the opportunity to fight under regulations and rules, not out in the streets which has legal consequences,” he says.
Jason also believes MMA is good for the soul and channelising energy. “You need to understand that MMA releases a lot of pent-up energy that may manifest negatively. It ultimately makes you into a calmer, better person,” he adds.
While Jason is articulate about the philosophy behind combat sports, Angad is still more rooted to the ground. For him, fighting was akin to representing and fighting for the country itself.
“My school, Navodaya Vidyalaya in my hometown, Rudraprayag, played an important role in inculcating in me these values. I got exposed to India’s wonderful cultural diversity, and it really made me want to represent the country. As an athlete, I think this was the best way for me,” he says.
Angad has been currently on a six-month rest following a major surgery to his knee. “Injuries play a huge role are part and parcel of fights. As I told you, my spirit is always there, but injuries slow you down without one even realising it. So, now I am finally listening to my doctors,” he says.
Jason agrees. “You ought to stop and rest, he says. “Sometimes, people don’t listen to their body till it breaks down and they have to stop then. That isn’t a good space to be in.”
Analyst Andrew Lu too thinks breaks are an absolute necessity and so is MMA rehab for professional fighters. “It is of course a gruelling sport, and each time you’re getting punched in the head you’re taking some trauma.”
“But overall, I think MMA is safer than other combat sports since referees have much more discretion. In MMA, if a fighter is downed with punches or kicks, or is unable to defend intelligently, usually the referee stops the fight, thus preventing a fighter from taking more damage,” he adds.
A study also points out how compared to professional boxing, MMA offers more options to combatants to stop the fight like submission grappling (indicated by a ‘tap-out’ by one opponent) that makes the sport relatively safer.
Combat sports in India
India does have a culture of combat sports. The wrestling contingent has always been popular, and Indians fare well in boxing too. Yet the difference between these individual sports and MMA is that they’re recognised as amateur sports and offer security for life through government jobs, rewards and other incentives.
“MMA is prize fighting in that regard. If you win, you carry your purse home”, says Andrew.
In India, MMA has gone through its travails since it was first launched and televised about 13 years ago. The promoters and screening platforms have changed many times and most fighters have faded into oblivion. Only a handful of fighters have managed to have stable careers as athletes.
According to Andrew, many successful Indian boxers and wrestlers don’t opt for MMA as a career. “Afterall, who wants to get punched in the face for money?”
There have only been two Indians thus far to have been associated with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)—a US-based fighting promotion, which is regarded as the best in terms of global viewership and fighter purses.
While one of them, Anshul Jubilee, did win a contract with the UFC, he has been defeated in every UFC event.
Angad too featured in an edition of the Road to UFC tournament, a contest that was meant to select new talent from across the globe. He showed a lot of promise, but narrowly lost the contest in the semi-finals.
Commenting on India’s future in MMA, Andrew says, “Honestly, I think we’re at least 10-15 years before we even get a win at the UFC. So, I think the sport is in a very precarious position.”
“And I don’t think it is the knowledge of the sport because fights now are fairly televised, so everyone can learn what the best practices are”, he adds. “I feel the main issue is that in India, we aren’t being realistic about where we are as a fighting nation and what we need to do in order to improve”, sums up Andrew.
A fighter’s mindset
Andrew says, “See, we play sports like basketball, football etc, but you don’t ‘play’ fighting. The physical toll and rigor combat sports takes on the body is incomparable. It is the ultimate sacrifice of the mind and body, so fighters should know this before getting into the sport. Indian fighters need that killer instinct, so I feel there needs to be a mentality shift”, he elaborates.
Jason sounds quite optimistic about Indian MMA’s future with regards to the platforms available now.
“Finally, we have a family who’s putting their name on the line to grow the sport”, remarks Jason, referring to the Shroff family of Bollywood – Tiger and Krishna Shroff, and their parents Ayesha and Jackie, who run the promotion Matrix Fight Night (MFN). MFN has a good attendance and a healthy viewership on the OTT platform Jio Hotstar since 2019.
“They’re doing it from the ground up. They hold events like the MFN national championships that seek talent from all major Indian cities as well as tier-2 and tier-3 cities. They’re also bringing in referees and fighters from abroad to test our fighters against them”, says Jason.
He also keenly analyses the business aspects of the sport. “As someone who comes from a business family, I can tell you that the evaluation of the company (MFN) in the coming years will be really big – comparable to the Pro-Kabaddi league and the IPL.”
There are three broad areas, according to Andrew, that Indian fighters need to work on. “First, it has to be the diet—it’s a very basic and a fundamental requirement, especially for combat sports. I really don’t feel Indian fighters have invested a lot in nutritional requirements for combat sports”, he says.
“Second is the overall integration of various disciplines and best practices for MMA”, he says, pointing to Mutant MMA Academy owned by Angad. “So Mutant has really compartmentalised training—there are separate coaches for different disciplines like wrestling, boxing etc., and they’re learning how these individual techniques can be best adapted to MMA. Certain techniques in boxing or wrestling won’t work in MMA since it mixes it up you see—a boxer can be taken down and a grappler or wrestler will get punched”, he explains.
“Then they (Mutant MMA) have a world-class coach like Angad who has had international experience, and most importantly who lays emphasis on the sheer grind, the gruelling physical training in the hills and technique refinement. That’s why the guys from his gym do so well at a promotion like MFN”, adds Andrew.
He does acknowledge the large number of losses Indian fighters suffer at the international stage.
“See, iron sharpens iron. You cannot hit and expect not to get hit back. You need to be able to take shots and train with people who make you understand what it takes to be successful at that level. That’s the third point” he says.
“And today one doesn’t need to go all the way to the US, which is expensive. Places such as Bali and Thailand are much closer to India, and have really good gyms where some of the best fighters, including those from the UFC, train,” he adds.
Jason too, who trains at both these locations, endorses them as great destinations for Indian fighters to hone their skills. Yet without sufficient financial backing, would it not be difficult for fighters to afford boarding-lodging and gym fees?
“Yes, I am fortunate that I come from a family that supports me emotionally and financially. Money does have an important part to play so one can’t deny that surely,” says Jason. But, he quickly adds, a lots of other fighters from India have followed suit since he made the move.
Andrew adds, “If some benefactors like those who run MFN get behind the fighter’s training, then we can surely produce elite fighters.”
Internet—mixed-martial artist’s friend
Lastly, Andrew points out one integral element that makes MMA as much an entertainment sport as it is an athletic contest—media management.
“Leveraging the Internet is at the heart of prized fighting. If you can’t do it, find someone who can.” he says.
“The UFC in particular, or any other big fighting promotion, will certainly look at the person they’re signing in, the region of the world they come from, and the values they represent when they talent-scout the globe for fresh talent. It is a bid to increase their own audience you see. And for that, they will look at your social media pages. So in this day and age, if you’re not using the Internet to further your career then you’re doing something wrong,” he elaborates.
Jason, who himself is camera savvy and regularly posts his life’s updates, points to how the MFN has been doing this at regional and national levels.
“The way they’re marketing is really smart by giving a stage to all segments of the society. Fighters invite their family members on stage who are often wearing their local dresses and speaking their language. It surely increases their ratings, views, likes as well as their subscriptions,” he says.
Angad too posts regularly about his life’s updates on social media including YouTube. Both of these have helped him earn a huge fan-following, something that contributes to his success.
Adds Jason, “MFN now has taken it international, by giving a stage to smaller neighbouring countries like Nepal and Afghanistan.”
Then there’s the famed India-Pakistan rivalry that has also played out at the MFN.
“Whenever a fighter steps in to compete, they bring a whole nation or culture behind them. And when people see athletes from their regions, they say if he can do it, so can I. Ultimately it helps grow the sport,” says Jason, who thinks this will eventually lead to more depth in the talent pool for MMA in India and South Asia in general.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)