Super Fight League
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Super Fight League was a
mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...
promotion based in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. The organisation was formed in 2012 by actor
Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor, playback singer and film producer who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi films. Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 160 films. ...
and British-Indian businessman
Raj Kundra Raj Kundra is a British-Indian businessman and part time actor who, in 2004, was ranked as the 198th richest British Asian by ''Success''. He has faced legal scrutiny over allegations related to the production of adult content and involvement ...
, and co-owned by British-Indian businessman Bill Dosanjh and British boxing champion Amir Khan. Super Fight League had 67 live televised events, with over 100million views. It has produced at least 50 live televised events broadcast on
Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...
, Neo Prime,
ESPN Star Sports Fox Sports Asia (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version o ...
,
MTV India MTV is an Indian pay television channel specialising in music, reality and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 as the Indian version of the original American network and is owned by JioStar, under a license agreement with Par ...
and
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
.


History

The Super Fight League was formed in 2012 by actor Sanjay Dutt and British Indian businessman Raj Kundra, with the intent of giving Indian mixed martial artists a platform to compete and grow in its home country whilst bringing in talented fighters from different parts of the world. They launched their first event on 11 March 2012, which was headlined by Bob 'The Beast' Sapp and James 'The Colossus' Thompson. On 27 February, the Super Fight League announced that they had signed Todd Duffee,
Trevor Prangley Trevor Prangley (born 24 August 1972) is a South African mixed martial artist. He has fought in the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Dream, King of the Cage, MFC, the SFL, Shark Fights, and Bodog Fight. He competed in the Middleweight and Li ...
, Baga Agaev, Paul Kelly, Xavier Foupa-Pokam and Lena Ovchynnikova to four fight exclusive contracts. On 23 June, the Super Fight League announced that they had signed
Jeff Monson Oregon State Beavers Jeffrey William Monson (born January 18, 1971) is an American-born Russian mixed martial artist, boxer, and submission grappler who competes primarily in the heavyweight division. A professional com ...
,
Satoshi Ishii is a Japanese-Croatian retired Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, kickboxer, professional boxer and judoka who has held Croatian citizenship since 2019. Ishii won the gold medal in Judo at the Summer Olympics, Olympic Judo at the Beijing ...
,
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Nkamhoua (; born April 18, 1984), mostly billed simply as Sokoudjou, is a Cameroonian professional mixed martial artist. A professional competitor since 2006, Sokoudjou is the former Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki, KSW Light He ...
, and
Michael Page Michael Jerome Reece-Pagewkaassociation.com, Retrieved 28 August 2017. (born 7 April 1987), known as Michael "Venom" Page or MVP, is an English professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Welterweight and Middleweight divi ...
. It was announced by the
Fight Network Fight Network is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment. The network broadcasts programming related to combat sports, including mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, and professional wres ...
that they will show all of the Super Fight League’s events on
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
TV. In September 2012 Pavia resigned his position as the CEO of the Super Fight League citing "family reasons." The Super Fight League made three announcements on 24 September 2012. The first was a strategic alliance between themselves and
Invicta Fighting Championships Invicta Fighting Championships, also known as Invicta FC, is an American professional mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion dedicated to women's mixed martial arts that was founded in 2012 by Janet Martin and Shannon Knapp. The promotion is current ...
, which aims to bring the best Indian female fighters to Invicta, whilst Invicta will aim to send world class female mixed martial artists to the Super Fight League. The second announcement was the Friday Night Fight Nights. From 12 October, the Super Fight League will hold an event every Friday in a specially designed arena in Mumbai in front of an exclusive invitation only audience. This will replace the original model of holding arena events once aimed one a month. Programming will last for three hours each week with weigh-ins, live fights, and interviews from Bollywood cage side guests. There will be 7 fights in total each event, with 1 of them being a female bout. It will air live on Neo Prime in India and on their YouTube page for the rest of the world. The final announcement was introducing Indian Olympic Female
Boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
Bronze Medallist
Mary Kom Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom (born 24 November 1982) is an Indian Amateur boxing, Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Champions ...
as the Super Fight League's brand ambassador. At Super Fight League 13: Night of Champions, the Super Fight League rewarded 5 titles in the men's and women's division. Launching on 4 December 2012, the Super Fight League announced a strategic partnership Provogue to set up a new company to jointly market all merchandise for Super Fight League. The company has been named Pro Super Fight League and the first product to hit the market is the New Deodorant Range 'Aspire, Inspire and Desire'. The Super Fight League signed a new TV deal with ESPN Star Sport in India for all events to be shown live, starting with Super Fight League 14 on 29 March 2013. On 4 October 2014, Super Fight League held its inaugural show in the United States, with Super Fight League 35 taking place in Tacoma, Washington, followed by Clash of Titans in Dubai, a fight night rivalry between two countries, India and Pakistan On 27 February 2015. British boxer Amir Khan announced his share in the SFL in 2016, and would set up the first team-based MMA league.


Super Fight League Challengers

On 5 August 2012, the Super Fight League aired their reality show Super Fight League Challengers. Similar to
the Ultimate Fighter ''The Ultimate Fighter'' is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Pilgrim Media Group currently airing on ESPN+. It previously aired for fourteen s ...
, the show took 8 male and 8 female up-and-coming Indian mixed martial artists, place them in the same house whilst they compete to become the winner of the show. Every alternate episode has 2 fights where 2 fighters (male and female) graduate to the next round whereas the other two have to leave the camp. The show went on for 50 days and the fighter will a be given tasks each week, as well as being trained by some of the best international trainers available. The winner received Rs. 20 lakhs (approx. $30,000 / £22000) and a 3-year contract worth Rs. 25 lakhs with the promotion. The show was aired on Neo Prime and Zoom TV. The inaugural season was won by Kario Isaac Maheo and Manjit Kolekar.


Teams and owners


League structure (until 2018)

There are two groups, "A" and "B", consisting of four teams. Every team has six members (five male and one female) and six back-ups. These members belong to six different weight categories. The four teams compete in twelve League level matches. Two semi final matches are held, followed by the third place and final match.


Scoring system

The following are the five scales the contestants are scored on: # Draw = 1 point Unanimous/Majority/Split # Referee Decision = 3 points Unanimous/Split # TKO = 4 points # Submission = 5 points # KO = 6 points


Teams

* Sher-e-Punjab * Goa Pirates * Delhi Heroes * Bengaluru Tigers * Haryana Sultans * Mumbai Maniacs * U.P. Nawabs * Gujarat Warriors


Rules

Super Fight League's current rules are based upon the ''
Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts Most rule sets for mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions have evolved since the early days of Vale Tudo. As a result of health, legal, and moral concerns, many different rulesets were created, which give different countries and promotions very dif ...
'' that were originally established by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board and modified by the
Nevada State Athletic Commission The Nevada State Athletic Commission (also known as the Nevada Athletic Commission or NSAC) regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of Nevada, including licensure and supervision of promoters, boxers, kickboxer ...
.


Cage

Super Fight League uses a structure called the 'O'Zone. The 'O'Zone is a circular cage of chain-link fence that has been coated in black vinyl. The height of the fence varies between and , is in diameter and sits atop a platform. There are two gates on opposite sides of the cage to allow for people to enter and leave the cage.


Final champions


Men's divisions


Women's divisions

* List of Champions


Past events

*
2012 in Super Fight League The year 2012 was the inaugural year for Super Fight League, an Indian-based mixed martial arts (MMA) league. Its first event was held in March and featured a bout between the two MMA veterans Bob Sapp and James Thompson (fighter), James Thompson. ...
* 2013 in SFL numbered events * 2014–2016 in SFL numbered events


References


External links

* {{MMA organizations Defunct mixed martial arts promotions Martial arts in India Sports organisations of India Organisations based in Mumbai 2012 establishments in India Sports organizations established in 2012 Amir Khan (boxer) Mixed martial arts in India