Blood, gore and flying elbows galore at Super Fight League
All the hype and hoopla that had gone into projecting the showstopper of the ‘fastest growing combat sport in the world’ which hit ‘India with a bang’ ended in a premature whimper as American Bob Sapp tapped the floor in submission with not even two minutes on the clock against Britain’s James Thompson.
All the hype and hoopla that had gone into projecting the showstopper of the ‘fastest growing combat sport in the world’ which hit ‘India with a bang’ ended in a premature whimper as American Bob Sapp tapped the floor in submission with not even two minutes on the clock against Britain’s James Thompson.
But if there were any doubts that these Mixed Martial Arts fights were make-believe clashes of the WWE ilk, they was dispelled quite emphatically by Sunday’s lone bout between two women at the Andheri Sports Complex.
Most spectators were more than convinced when undefeated Ukrainian fighter Lena Ovchinnikova finally met more than her match in Serbia’s Sanja Sucevic in an intense battle that really got the crowd salivating for more. Even though Lena, who was here after winning all here eight fights in her career, was the more dominant figure with her swift attacks, her opponent, Sanja managed to wriggle out of her vicious arm-locks with uncanny finesse and turn them on her rival. It took Sanja all of seven minutes and 28 seconds to force Lena into submission.
After the pre-fight entertainment — Bollywood had the spectators crying hoarse — the gory action began with a lot of blood splashed in the octagon-shaped ring but the cheers were rather muted in each of the day’s eight bouts, except when the two ladies came in and when the rather robust-built Mumbai fighter Chaitanya Gavali, making his debut in the Super Fight League, was announced by the ring master.
Gavali traded a fair amount of punches with his Sri Lankan opponent Tiran Thakshala and made a couple of head-butts reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane’s in the 2006 Football World Cup Final which got the crowd hooting.