Sanctioned by the Global Authority for Mixed Martial Arts Federations (GAMMAF) and governed by the All India Mixed Martial Arts Association (AIMMAA), Matrix Fight Night has returned for another edition of thrilling and highly competitive MMA showdowns.
After their 7th edition at Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, where Abdul Azim Badakhshi won the main event against Marcelo Guarilha from Brazil, history somewhat repeated itself in the 8th edition.
MFN 8 has seen Abdul, also known as the “Afghan Lion”, continue his winning streak in the featherweight category by beating another pro-MMA fighter from Brazil, Fabricio Oliveira.
Once again, thanks to the Shroff family for their driven approach towards MMA in India, all aiming to promote the sport and offer exposure to aspirants and fans in the country. The efforts of the MMA community have culminated in three editions of MFN being held in Dubai, two in Mumbai, one in Hyderabad and twice in the capital of India.
What’s more, the 9th edition raises the count of MFN events in Delhi to three!
This time, just like the last, the mixed martial arts event is organised at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi. In edition 8, MFN’s fight card had nine fights amongst 18 MMA experts, spread across the featherweight, lightweight, bantamweight, and flyweight categories. This edition introduced another international MMA professional from Afghanistan, Zahoor Shah.
This 8th edition’s co-main event welcomed Dhruv Chaudhary, famously known as the KO Artist or Psycho. After settling his trilogy scoreline with Sumeet Khade through a technical knockout (TKO), in MFN 7, we had Sanjeet Budhwar stop him from back-to-back victories in successive editions.
Before talking about the what’s in store at MFN 9, let’s do a quick round-up of the outcome of MFN 8:
Main Card
Let’s look at the highlights of how the fights in the main card panned out:
- Chungreng Koren from Manipur fought off Aman Saini with a TKO finisher.
- The featherweight division witnessed a truly entertaining first-round victory for Shyamanand from Bihar in a mere 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Ironically, the start was a brutal slugfest, but Rajasthan’s Krishna Heer eventually succumbed to this rapid bloodbath.
- In the bantamweight category, MMA fighters from Uttarakhand and Maharashtra came face-to-face in the cage. Angad Bisht from Uttarakhand used a potent rear naked chokehold and got the better of Chaitanya’s progressive and convincing head-start.
- In the only bout in the lightweight category in MFN 8, we saw another Afghanistani fighter, Zahoor Shah, take home an impressive victory. His opponent, Srikant Sekhar from Odisha, fell to a quick loss in the first round itself, lifting Zahoor’s MMA record to 2-0.
- In the co-main event, Dhruv Chaudhary, proudly having ten stoppage wins in his 15-victory record, got a taste of his own favourite path to victory.
Dhruv may have caught hold of the first round during his chokehold attempt, but Sanjeet Budhwar from Rohtak used a reverse lock, translating into a deserving TKO victory.
Undercard
Here’s a summary of the three fights in this event.
- Sagar Thapa, aged 21, and Tanish Gupta played out a competitive bout of three rounds, with Sagar grabbing victory in the final round via a 29-28 score.
- Raish Muhamad Musa, with a pro MMA fighting record of 3-1-0, added another victory by getting the better of Bon Jovi for the second time in successive meetings.
- Indian MMA professional Kushal Vyas from Nagpur, a runaway at age 12 to follow his desire to practice combat sports, took the beating from a debutant in professional MMA, Rahul Thapa. This result was an example of how rapidly MMA is progressing in the country.
Main Event
The much-awaited main event displayed Abdul Azim Badakhshi soar to victory by deploying his defensive mastery, making the Brazilian, Oliveira, struggle to find a takedown opportunity.
The first round showed the Brazilian break through a lengthy grapple, but Badakshi rose with a roundhouse kick in the next round. Similarly, in the final round, we saw another beautifully executed roundhouse kick by Abdul. Since this move rattled his opponent, Abdul capitalised by sending multi-punch combinations followed by face blows – all this while Oliveira was stuck in a body hold.
As all MFN main events promise, this fight went to the wire with a scoreline of 29-28 in each of the three rounds.
Bonus Read: We’ve created a guide on how to perform the Muay Thai roundhouse kick.
What’s Cooking at MFN 9?
The 9th edition of Matrix Fight Night is being hosted at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi on June 24th.
With MMA Matrix as their gym partner, Total Healthsums as their health partner, BLK-Max as their hospital partner, FitAF as their nutrition partner, and Tyche Media as their media partner, fans of MMA in India will witness several new debutants at MFN, including pro fighters, stars from past MFN events, and many surprise packages.
Undercard
MMA enthusiasts will witness four bouts in the undercard, spread across four unique categories: flyweight, lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight.
1. Arsenba Ozukum from Nagaland, with two bronze medals at world MMA championships and several victories on Indian soil, is equipped to take on Bishwamitra from Manipur, who has a win to loss ratio of 15:1 in his MMA career.
2. The deadly Prakram Dandona, who comes amid the category of fearsome MMA warriors in India, is back in the cage. This time he battles Digamber Rawat, a nobody in the MMA space ready to transform his training for the Indian Army into a sheer will to become a pro-MMA fighter.
3. Another debutant from Nagaland, Imkongsunep Jamir, is the first approved pro combat sports expert stemming from Nagaland. His opponent, Sahil Rana, starred in the Fight of the Night at MFN 7 in Hyderabad.
4. After falling to Shyamanand at MFN 7, Abhishek Negi has doubled down on MMA training and is ready to battle the youngest fighter at MFN 9, Avizo Lanamai. What’s best, despite being a mere 17 years old, he’s a gold medallist at the 1st ADCC Indian Grappling Open in 2019!
Main Card
In the main card at MFN 9, we have the co-main event ready to steal the show. The first ever all-female bout in the history of Matrix Fight Night brings the “Visayan fighter” from the Philippines, also MFN’s first international female MMA professional, Mary Jane Buna, against Jojo Rajkumari from Manipur.
We’re stoked to witness this MMA battle between inspirational female fighters from India and the Philippines.
Apart from this showdown, we got another four battles lined up:
1. Labelled as the Super Fight, Seth Rosario from Puerto Rico is set to face Zahoor Shah from Afghanistan. With Zahoor yet roaring with a quick victory over Srikant in MFN 8, will he continue his streak and beat Srikant’s training buddy, Seth?
2. As MFN rightfully calls it the war of veterans of Indian MMA, Srikant Sekhar, also known as Captain Crazy, has upped his training a notch to face Sumeet Khade, who carries the tag of the KO King.
3. Angad Bisht is welcomed back with a more formidable challenge of battling it out in a new weight category. This flyweight bout on MFN 9’s main card is a clash of the titans, with the second being Himanshu Malik, who has 6-8 years of MMA experience at international levels under his belt, making his comeback to the Indian MMA scene.
4. Puja Tumar needs no introduction owing to her international fights representing India. On the other end, we welcome Tenzin Puma from North-East India – her Wushu and MMA expertise have supported her in bagging many MMA laurels.
Main Event
Having restricted Dhruv Chaudhary, a.k.a. The Psycho, from successive victories in MFN 7 and 8, Sanjeet Budhwar has never been readier to deploy his hands of stone in a top-notch MMA bout against the young Serbian, Dorde Stojanovic.
The question remains, will our Indian MMA superstar give the Serbian a night to forget, or will this rising overseas fighter take home the victory?
Verdict
We, at MMA Matrix and Matrix Fight Night, intend the continued growth and promotion of MMA in India through budding MMA aspirants and an ever-evolving fan community receiving support from across the globe.
Stay tuned. We have updates from MFN 9 coming in soon!
Catch all the action at Matrix Fight Night 9 here.
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