With one event under their belt, the Indian based Super Fight League promotion is ready to host it’s second show this weekend in Chandigarh, India.
Mixed martial arts has yet to make it big in the country of 1.2 billion people but it’s a destination that UFC president Dana White plans on bringing the sport as well as his companies “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series.
So it should come as no surprise that when SFL CEO Ken Pavia looks at the country he sees a wealth of “untapped potential” when it comes to fans and upcoming fighters.
Pavia was a guest on “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” on Tuesday to talk about the upcoming SFL 2 event this weekend and the “potential” market that India presents for the sport of MMA.
“The first event sold out, no seats were available the day of the event,” Pavia told Mauro Ranallo on The MMA Show. “We were on the front page of the Mumbai Times — the No. 1 circulated English newspaper in India — two times the week of the first event. The second event this weekend is sold out. We have seven events the rest of the year, a reality show, and 12 next year. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. The WWE is big out here but it’s starting to wane now that (the Indian fans) have realized it’s fake, so we’re looking to capitalize on it.”
The early success of the SFL is a positive sign for a sport that Pavia says has no real competition in the country.
“Virtually nothing,” Pavia said of what kind of MMA competition his promotion faces in India. “Bellator’s on a very small cable station. This is complete virgin terirtoy. They were confused by the first event and thought it was professional wrestling. It was incumbent upon us to educate them. It’s like 1993 and UFC 1 all over again. But the celebrities we have have brought us attention and our television deal reaches 500 million homes. We’re five times bigger than NBC in the U.S., which reaches 95 million homes. We hope that we’ll get people to watch it for the first time.
“We have 1.2 billion fans here and they pay big money for sporting events. The only thing that’s bigger is cricket and English Premier League soccer. Bollywood sells out all their shows, and we’re looking to take that audience. We have so much untapped potential in our thumbs.”
Not only that, but the goal is to also cultivate the talent that India possesses which, Pavia admits, is raw at this point in time.
“The Indian fighters have always been cannon fodder for fighters in the region and haven’t had a chance to adavnce to bigger shows so the progress has been retarded a little bit,” he said. “I think we have phenomenal athletes in India but they haven’t been exposed to the right trainers or opportunities, so we built an Olympic-style training centre and we have Benji Radach and Dennis Hallman as the coaches for the next few months.We have excellent athletes that are a little bit green, but they have potential.”
Also featured on Tuesday’s Podcast was Bellator fighters Eric Prindle and Travis Marx, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, and New York subway hero Joe Lozito.