The Bulldog returns to the Kickboxing Ring this Feb !!!

Abhijeet Petkar aka "bulldog" will be making his highly anticipated return to the kickboxing ring in february as he fights for one of asias most prestigious world title kickboxing belts , watch this space for more updates and information .

BJJ / MMA Seminar 22nd 23rd Jan 2011 Tigers MMA Academy

Tigers International Fight Team : Jan 2011 Fighter Contracts / Signups

Im glad to welcome to the tigers international fight team 7 of our latest signups , fighters who will be proud to represent tigers india on the world fight circuit : abhijeet petkar 95 kgs , bharat khandare 65 kgs , susovan ghosh 50 kgs , surje gurung 68 kgs , chaitanya gavali 85 kgs , shafiqur rehman shaikh 68 kgs , mohammed shahid 75 kgs , welcome guys ! make us all proud this year !!!

My dear dear brother vicky

This picture is of my dear dear brother from mumbai , mr jitendra khare , also known as "vicky" , the name vicky sounds "cho chweet" and this sweet smiley picture looks even "chweeter" , but this mountain of a human being is the assistant grappling instructor with our team and the head coach of strength and conditioning and when he rolls with you on the mat its a painful experience , heres my input on rolling with vicky :
1]Full Mount = full mountain on me
2]Vicky in my Guard = Not quite ! Coz no normal human can get his legs around vicky waist [whether youre a bjj black belt or not its gonna be a challenge]
3]Vicky gets an armbar = actually i will tap quicker when vicky lands his butt on my face setting up the arm bar , the rest is history
4]Vicky gets a kimura = Hey isnt that my arm ??? whats it doin with you vicky ?

And heres the final quote of the day , "How does evolution mma get new mats every week ? Coz Road Roller [i mean vicky] keeps rollin with [i mean rollin on ] the new signups ....

Our formula for mma at tigers gym and evolution mma

Just incase any one of you guys who watched the alex reid show and his training at the old tigers facility in bhagur needs a clarification here goes ... we do not use traditional indian martial arts like kalari to train our mma fighters , we work on boxing , muay thai , wrestling and bjj [primarily no gi but do gi training once in a while too].The Alex reid show was a great experience for all of us including alex himself and i will blog a little more in detail about that entire show soon.So if you turn up at any one of our centres dont be dissapointed if we dont clad you in traditional kalari or kusthi attire and arrange a herbal massage for you as a welcome ceremony that was just for alex on request by the producers of the show lol

padwork bloopers

Ok heres a funny blooper that happened with me on friday evening , I was holding pads for some of the big guys in class and then shifted to Adi whos like one of the youngest mma students at evolution mumbai , holding pads for about 20 mns and im sweating before i begin with adi and i went like - one two and he goes eesh ! eesh ! then i shout adi ur not punchin hard enuf - one ! two ! and he goes - eesh ! eesh ! and he spits like all over my face ... yuck ! i couldnt figure out what was sweat and what was spit , damn ! adi next time i hold pads for you im wearing a glass visor , lol [in the picture thats adi with the silver tigers mma shorts black gloves and black shin guards and hey checkout that newbie wearing the pink gloves ! ha ha dude pink gloves are just for the ladies lol

Heading back home after weekend training

Some pictures from the railway station in mumbai ...

Bellator poster outside Inorbit Mall Malad Mumbai

After training we usually stopover at the foodcourt in the inorbit mall malad , over the last few weeks ive been seing a bellator fighting championship poster outside the mall and I thought that I should share it with you guys.Bellator is now telecasting to India via prime big cbs which is on the reliance big tv network.I personally enjoy the fights put on by bellator , you guys should catch some of their shows on tv.

Jan 2011 Weekend # 1 Training Mumbai

I Was glad to be back in mumbai this weekend training with the guys at evolution mma , session # 1 on friday seemed like everyone had an extra holiday dose and had difficulties doing the simplest workouts but sat and sun looked good. Jitendra took a good no gi grappling class and the guys are learning fast , Raghav had shown them some new moves during his last visit to mumbai and they all have been showing off those moves all weekend.Friday I began with some mma striking followed by some strength and conditioning workouts.Saturday we did some wrestling and boxing in the first half of the morning session followed by bjj in the second half.Sunday we did all grappling and then finished off with some sparring.We have 2 new members training with us from this month : Joshua Rao whos been training some basic mma , bjj and muay thai in the US and Shane whos also from the US and has a decent wrestling and bjj base , Shane had trained briefly with the UFCs Nate Marquardt.Welcome to Evolution MMA to Shane and Joshua !

Jo Jo

Over the last few months Jo our assistant instructor at evolution mma , tigers mma and golds gym nasik hasnt been keeping too well , due to some chronic issues and other injuries developed at training hes not been 100% , he actually had a scheduled mma bout against "superkick" shafiq at gym wars 6 but didnt clear the pre fight medical , in december when jo went back to his native kerala for the christmas holidays he ended up spending all his time in bedrest because of the terrible pain in his neck , elbow and back , doctors have suggested that he consult with a sports / bone specialist and consider surgery , some friends have asked me to suggest jo to do yoga to help with the recovery.Jo - our wishes are prayers are for you , get well soon bro , we all miss you - i mean miss beating you up ... lol

Goodbye Maratha Warrior !

In december 2010 Bhupesh kamble fought his last mma fight representing the tigers mma team soonafter his return to India due to some unavoidable issues I took the decison to release bhupesh from his contract with the tigers team.Bhupesh is officially not part of the tigers fight team or part of the tigers or evolution training team from jan 2011 , looks like we have an open spot for the now vacant spot of the "maratha warrior" , any takers from maharashtra ???

Mumbai Nasik Mumbai Nasik Mumbai Nasik .... whew !!!

Every weekend I travel to mumbai to work with the evolution mma team and training centre in kandivali west , the early morning trips to the devlali railway station in december and jan are freezing with temperatures dropping somedays to 5 degrees [which is cold] , here is my view of the train pulling into the devlali railway station at 7am.

China in Dubai

In December I got to spend the holiday with the family in the UAE , during our visit to the global village I went over to "China" village looking for some martial arts stuff , sadly I came back just with toy nan chucks and could just strike this bruce lee pose outside the village

It happens ONLY in India

Haiiiiiiyahhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few years ago the fitness industry in india was hit by the 'kickboxing' bug , gyms all across india were looking for 'kickboxing' instructors who could fit the bill and teach cardio kickboxing and taebo , unfortunately when such competent trainers / instructors werent found the gym managers started accepting applications of karate , taekwondo and kung fu 'masters' who gave their best shot to do the job , as a result india is one of the few places in the world where kickboxing practioners shout "kiai" and attain "black belts" in the "art" or kickboxing.These days india is experimenting the same thing with mma , heres one funny story : i visited a gym in mumbai where the friendly receptionist explained to me that their gym was offering mma as a fitness option for their members , i was interested to know who it was who was running the mma training program there and what was their syllabus , i asked if they did bjj as well and whether they chose kickboxing or muay thai for their standup training ... ? she replied "thats the speciality of our training here sir , our instructor is a black belt 2nd dan in mma and we teach karate kung fu jeet kune do and krav maga - its all mixed in a syllabus so thats why its called MMA ..... lol

Keyboard warriors

You know it seems so ironic , I receive so much of criticism about my fighters and my team by 'keyboard warriors' mostly on youtube , apart from hate mail and spam which is addressed to us being indian alot of criticism comes from india and south east asia itself , altho sometimes it does piss me off and i confess that i do get online and give these people a piece of my mind , more often that not i get to read some sensible comments made by unknown well wishers who do seem to understand what efforts and hard work it takes for us to promote [and i mean without any billion dollar support] mma in a country where cricket and bollywood are considered nothing short of religion , here is one such comment from a youtube user named "reppinwoodville" , whoever you are thanks for that sensible comment found on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8VQ0LBBVCQ

2011 Day # 1 at the office

Ive signed up a whole new roster of mma fighters after gym wars 6 , the interest level in mma seems to have increased in 2010 compared to the previous years , i guess this is due to the ufc gaining popularity in the south east asian region.Among the fighters guys to look out for this year are Mohammad Shahid and Bharat Khandare , these guys have been doing very well in the amateur scene and are ripe and ready to make their pro debuts this year.Jitendra has been doing an extremely good job with the evolution mma gym in mumbai , looking forward this weekend and hooking up with the mumbai team after a long holiday.