The first National MMA Champions have been crowned in India.
Following a public announcement about the event in January, GAMMA India successfully organised its first National Championships in Bengaluru.
The event took place from 24th March to 26th March 2021 and after three days of intense competition, GAMMA India crowned their first National Champions across 13 weight categories.
With the GAMMA Asian Championships slated for July, GAMMA India wanted to give Team India enough time to prepare for the Asian Championships. GAMMA India wants to better their country standing of 7th placement in the 2019 GAMMA World championship, held in Singapore.
Registration for the 1st GAMMA India Open National Championships was open to all interested, a month earlier, with 23rd March 2021 as the closing date of registration. All registrations for the National Championship were accepted via SportData.com, and draws were made via the tool to ensure fair and unbiased match-making.
A total of 104 participants from all over India registered for the National Championship across 13 weight categories.
With COVID-19 safety protocols in place, it meant that all competitors and officials had to produce a negative RT-PCR report in order to complete their registration process. The National Championship was a closed-door event, with access given only to athletes, corner men and technical officials.
Additional requirements by the Venue and Local State Authorities made it mandatory for all participants, coaches, corners, and officials present to wear masks at all times. The bouts were in fixed time slots arranged by weight category, so as to limit the number of contestants within the venue at any given time and prevent overcrowding.
The event was live streamed on YouTube, covered via channel LockerRoom.in, a leading Combat Sports digital media house in the country.
Conforming to GAMMA’s spirit of athlete safety, transparency, and athlete-centric approach, many firsts were implemented for a National Championship in India. Competing athletes were required to weigh-in each morning of their bout to discourage severe weight cuts.
A transparent scoring system was implemented during the bout and scores for each round were displayed for all to see.
With athletes’ safety and recovery in mind, athletes who won two consecutive rounds out of three rounds in the preliminary and quarter-final bouts were automatically declared the winner, and can avoid the third round.
In the semi-finals and finals, held on 25th and 26th March, all athletes had to compete for three rounds in each bout.
The Final day was graced by the presence of our Guests-of Honour, Mr. Sujay Janardhan, an elite national athlete, and Mr. Hemanth Kumar, CEO ROAR Championship. Mr. Sujay Janardhan has several National and Asian Record lifts to his name. In a recently held World Powerlifting Championship, he ranked 4th overall in his category. Mr. Janardhan has actively been involved in managing Strength and Conditioning Training for Combat Sports athletes from across India, and at the tournament, he shared his experience and provided some valuable inputs to these up-and-coming athletes.
In addition to providing GAMMA India with a venue and providing support in running this event for three days, Mr. Hemanth Kumar, CEO of ROAR Championships was also on the look out for talents. There were also talent scouts from various national promotions in the audience.
After 84 bouts across 13 weight categories fought over three days, here are the medal standings of the GAMMA India’s 1st National Championships. The Gold medalist of each weight category will represent Team GAMMA India at the GAMMA Asian Championship in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan in July.
Mens
-115 lbs:
Gold: Havish Reddy
Silver: Joyraj Pegu
Bronze: Jowkhum Dili
Bronze: Tudu Kerobin
-125 lbs:
Gold: Arsenba Ozukum
Silver: Vaibhav Barde
Bronze: Kamlesh Bhatt
Bronze: Shahid Indikar
-135 lbs:
Gold: Aaquib Javed
Silver: Vishnu Warrier
Bronze: Abhishek Gowda
Bronze: Siddharth Kothapalli
-145 lbs:
Gold: Chourajit Laishram Singh
Silver: Mairidin Newmai
Bronze: Vishal Diman
Bronze: Naina Mohammed
-155 lbs:
Gold: Sumit Bhyan
Silver: Neitso Angami
Bronze: Rayyan Butt
Bronze: Naresh Kumar
-170 lbs:
Gold: Suyash Jadhav
Silver: Rahul Johnson
Bronze: Mohammed Ali
Bronze: Pratik Shetty
-185 lbs:
Gold: Sahil Dahiya
Silver: Anurag Singh
Bronze: Anuj Varma
Bronze: Krishansish Mohanty
-205 lbs:
Gold: Ajit Negi
Silver: Aditya Sanil
Bronze: Ranjodh Singh
Womens
205 lbs:
Gold: Umesh Prakash Mahale
-105 lbs:
Gold: Akshata Khadtare
Silver: Sarita Rathod
-115 lbs
Gold: Samata Sonavane
Silver: Ratnadiptee
-125 lbs
Gold: Sanika Patil
Silver: Tharika Muthamma
Bronze: Tejaswini Nandedkar
-135 lbs
Gold: Kavyanjali Dhanavath
