INDIAN MMA FIGHTER AND FORMER ROADIES contestant Yogesh Jadhav was amidst a string of controversies recently.
The most notable one was the war of words that involved BOOM MMA chief, Ratul Mukherjee. The Fan Garage reached out to Yogesh for a statement regarding the whole issue that went down and below is what the fighter had to say:
“It was really funny to see one of the self-proclaimed Dana White of Kolkata who claimed that he made me star by giving me one unsanctioned fight in his crap event where there was no Judge, a hardly qualified Ref & Absolutely no medical facility. First He declared on posters that it would be an AIMMAF sanctioned event; but after event we got to know from AIMMAF that it wasn't AIMMAF sanctioned event & he used AIMMAF name just to mislead everyone.
So basically it was an underground fight which we were totally unaware. During Whatsapp & telephonic conversation he assured Dragon MMA Gym Pune owner Ambildhok Shantanu that he will take care of internal traveling, food plus Pick up & drop facility in Kolkata.
In one of the telephonic conversation he asked Shantanu sir for diet every fighter & support staff required from team Dragon. So Shantanu sir sent him everything about diet on whats app. He recently alleged in an interview to a Pro MMA website that I demanded Ice cream, Biryani & Custard. Will any athlete in the world will ask for such a fatty diet ?
Post event when Shantanu asked Ratul about why I was kept on empty stomach he replied in an email that our fighters from Meghalaya like Anastasius & Anthony ate my food.
How can a featherweight & a bantamweight eat a Heavyweight diet?
Boom fight night was supposed to take place on 28th & 29th of Nov 2016; on 8th of November PM Modi announced demonetization.
Hence there was no money in ATM'S & long waits in Banks to achieve your own hard earned money in the month of Nov & Dec. Similar scenario was in Kolkata. There was absolutely no money in ATM's of Kolkata during Boom. Me, Anastasius, Anthony & two support staff guys Govind Roy & Head Coach Bahrit Marwein landed in Kolkata on 26th evening. Since internal Traveling, pick up- drop & customized food was assured by boom we hardly carried any money with us.
First blow to the team landed in form of rejection of hotel rooms to Anastasius, Anthony & two support staff guys by giving the reason that they were not carrying ID documents with them. First Boom never told us to carry those documents before leaving Pune. Once we reached Kolkata after traveling this much they told us to show our ID proofs.
Anastasius, Anthony, Bahrit & Govind had no option left than to contact politicians in Meghalaya to make there accommodation arrangements in Meghalaya house Kolkata on 26th late night.
On 27th weigh in was supposed to take place along with the promotional events. But there wasn't any weigh in apart from me every other fighter from our gym was thrown inside the octagon against much heavier guy. Still we came out victorious! Anthony, Anastasius was given 2 food packets only on 29th morning once they reached event venue.
I was given food, a bread & 3 boiled eggs on 26th evening else I only achieved half a dozen Banana's in those 3 days. Sahil landed in Kolkata through Plane on 29th morning, he was supposed to contact Boom operations guy Saurabh once he Lands for Pick up. Saurabh was not picking up his call for almost 2 hours; so Sahil was kept waiting on airport from 6 am to 8 am.
Shantanu gave clear instructions to all of us before leaving from Pune to maintain protocol by not disturbing BOOM head Ratul just to maintain courtesy. In the end on that fight day empty stomach Sahil finally contacted Ratul to pick him up from the airport still Ratul didn't arrived, so finally Sahil took Taxi by his own expenses & arrived in Hotel.
As per the telephonic conversation between Sensei Shantanu & Ratul our hotel was supposed to be a British made circuit house but when we landed there we got to know that it was a very dirty Hotel in a very unhygienic locality.
Sahil was thrown in to the cage with only one banana before the fight against a much heavier opponent (Let me tell you all ! Sahil was traveling the entire night before). Anastasius fought 3 fights on 28th & 29th but his Sherdog record shows only one. We contacted Sherdog with the same query & Ratul through official twitter handler of Boom rejected to Put record on Sherdog as it was.
Anthony & Anastasius gyms were not shown as Dragon MMA Gym Pune. Sherdog record was put in the place after 3 months of constant follow by the team Dragon. Anthony was supposed to fight top Afghan kick boxer Jawed in the same event but he was Put up against a average lightweight guy in Kolkata.
During this fight Anthony's grandmother was in ICU & being only male person of his family it was important that stayed with his family but just because he wanted to beat the Best Afghan kick boxer he came up to the BOOM event by risking his Grandmothers health.
I was declared winner by the Boom ref once Tony backed out of fight & showed middle finger to the promoter but then 4 days later BOOM management changed decision & turned it as no contest. I landed only two back of the head elbows how can that be DQ as per recent Ratul Mukherjee's post.
Why Ref didn't intervene when I hit those elbows; first two illegal moves has to be warning before declaring Disqualification right?
If I am tier C fighter then why Ratul was begging 4 fights exclusive contract with me. His recent post & interviews language showed the kind of culture he is grown up with. Nevertheless so far in my martial arts career I became AIMMAA national grappling champion by defeating SFL stars Micheal Pareira, Abhijeet Petkar & Mr. India Pratiek Jain.
Recently I fought in FCC 14 main event where I defeated 5 times national kick boxing champion Shashi Bhushan Singh. I am undefeated in wrestling over the years; I won state heavyweight kickboxing championship twice. In fit n fight season 3 finale I send my opponent Chaitanya to hospital with one knockout punch.
After that incident hardly any fighter in western India was ready to fight with me. In fit n fight season 4 total number of 5 opponents rejected to fight with me because of that knockouts impact. Same scene took place in some other promotions as well. Hence sensei Shantanu was left with no option than to throw an open challenge to find suitable opponent for me.
Unfortunately one tiny gym & Ratul Mukherjee's team ganged up to troll us unnecessary in this. These guys are just jealous of our achievements & they will die in jealousy. Whatever social followers Ratul achieved so far is just because of his promotion from our side. If you watch his YouTube video's you will understand that as a promoter he don't event understand how to upload video's on YouTube. I got only one advice for these haters, try to RISE ABOVE HATE
The Other side of the story:
Ratul had earlier reacted to the issue in an interview given out to PRO MMA where he spoke about the same.
Fighters don’t get well treatment!! If you go to the history of fight business you can [apply] this statement there also!! What kind of treatment fighters want?? Star hotels, travel by flights, huge pay cheques and lots of attention right; we are ready to this if they bring us something on the table. I don’t want 0-0 record fighters or their managers to put terms and conditions as simple as that.
You can read his complete interview here: Indian MMA: Ratul Mukherjee talks BOOM MMA, Recent controversies, his nickname and more
Meanwhile, Yogesh is set to make his MMA return against Amogh on 19th August 2017 at the Elbow event which will be held in Patel Stadium in Ajmer.