Indian MMA: Jitendra Khare talks how he took Up MMA, Indian MMA and more

JITENDRA KHARE IS ONE OF THE most important names associated with MMA in India. From the early days of Gym Wars to the recent uprising of the sport in the nation, Jitendra has been playing a crucial role in helping the sport grow.

Currently grooming the next generation of fighters in Evolution MMA, Jitendra was recently interviewed by the MMA India Show. During the interview, he talked about a string of topics including how he took up the sport, the challenges faced by Indian MMA and more. You can read some highlights below:

How he took up MMA:

I’ve been a martial artist my entire life. During my school days, I did Judo and Karate, I did university-level boxing as well. After that I was still curious, so I dabbled with mud-pit wrestling because I’m from this district in Maharashtra called Raigad where mud-pit wrestling is quite famous. Once I got into engineering most of my physical activities stopped and I turned to weight-lifting and power-lifting which led to an injury. Thus, for a while I was away from martial arts but after coming back to full fitness, I wanted to get back to some sort of physical activity and some form of martial art. It was a time when I was beginning to watch Pride on ESPN. MMA really intrigued me because I had always done some sort of striking sport and a bit of Wrestling but MMA was a mix of both!

Initially when I took up the sport, there wasn’t really anyone else doing MMA. I started training in Judo under Mr. Ashok Chaudhary. In 2010, I represented Maharashtra in Judo nationals. After that I started a MMA gym with a friend in Kandivali in 2010. At that point, it was quite nascent and we just had a blue-belt who would come and help us train. We weren’t at a really high-level back then. So that’s how the journey began, it was the interest in MMA that got me going because after having learnt so many different forms of martial art, you always feel that in one martial art or the other something is still lacking. Hence, it was a curiosity to learn more myself that propelled me towards this journey of MMA.

Challenges faced when he set up Evolution MMA:

One of the biggest challenge has always been the popularity. However, the sport has now gained a lot of popularity. Thus, the next major challenge is educating people about the sport. Everyone feels that they are ‘tough’ and that they don’t need to properly train for MMA because they’ve been in a few street fights. Many beginners are often reluctant to train and want to go pro in their first fight. Many gyms and dojos sell kickboxing, karate and Judo as MMA because people are uncomfortable with grappling. We get a lot of people who come to us after a tiring wrestling or BJJ session and say that they want to do ‘striking MMA’ and not ‘grappling MMA’. The business and financial aspect has always been a huge challenge as well.

The state of Indian MMA:

I believe we are currently at a point where we have somewhat surpassed the popularity and education challenge. Now we are at the second stage and the biggest challenge that we now face is the financial aspect. Financial support for fighters is a big challenge. Most of the fighters have to do personal trainings to support themselves. For instance, a couple of my guys will be fighting in Malaysia and because it’s an amateur tournament so they don’t get tickets. Hence, they have to do trainings just to get enough money to get their own tickets so that they can compete.

It’s an organic process and I feel that since the popularity of the sport is growing then people will also soon start to financially support the fighters. MMA is clearly on the rise and it’s been gaining a lot of popularity because of some movies and shows. The MMA India Show is doing a phenomenal job as well in promoting MMA in the country.

Jitendra also talked about a list of other topics. You can check out the full interview here.

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