Full Contact Championship (FCC) is slowly and steadily building a fan base in Mumbai, putting on five events there over the course of the last few years and FCC 6, which is scheduled to take place on the June 30th at Rajkamal Studios, will be headlined by two title eliminators.
The promotion has been keeping a comparatively low profile, particularly in comparison to the Super Fight League which was launched in a blaze of publicity which it has so far failed to live up to, but it has already received widespread media attention with articles in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Straits Times and Reuters and CNN.
This has led to a lucrative sponsorship deal with Budweiser and an invitation to join the ONE FC Network. FCC's policy of throwing in the best Indian fighters with one another and seeing who comes out on top appears to be a successful strategy which has allowed it to gradually build a strong local fan base.
Among the best fighters to have emerged are welterweight champion Sandeep Yadav, 3-0, and middleweight champion Javed Mulla 3-1. Neither man will be in action on June 30th but they will be interested spectators because a shot at their respective titles will be on the line when Alfan Hashmi takes on Nitin Gaikwad and Shreekant Saket goes against Guarav Pandey in title eliminators.
Hashmi made his debut at FCC 5 in February and won by arm triangle choke in the opening round. At just 18 years old he is an exciting prospect who comes from a kickboxing background but has been working hard on his wrestling and grappling.
He will fight Gaikwad, whose record stands at 2-1, for the right to face Mulla for the middleweight title at FCC 7 which is likely to take place in August or September. The other eliminator sees Shrikant Sathe, who is 1-0 after a rear naked choke win at FCC 4, take on Gaurav Pandey who is also 1-0 after a decision win at FCC 5.
The winner of that bout will go against Yadav, one of the top fighters in India, at FCC 7. Known as 'power' he is a kickboxer who made his pro MMA debut in 2009 and has a perfect professional record with all his wins coming by way of KO.
FCC promoter Prashant Kumar, who just returned from two days in Singapore at the ONE FC Summit, is looking forward to the two main events,
"There will be a total of nine bouts. The co main Event Bout is in the 75kg category, between two very determined, and aggressive fighters who like to bring it on from the word go, Shrikant 'Psycho' Sathe, and Gaurav 'Judo' Pandey. The main event bout is between Alfan 'The Hitman' Hashmi and Nitin Gaikwad who lost a title bout in FCC 4 to Javed Mulla, but came back with an explosive performance in FCC 5 , knocking out his opponent Raju Shirsagar in a little over a minute."
Although the next card will consist exclusively of Indian fighters there is always the possibility that Kumar could bring in someone from one of the other promotions in the ONE FC Network in the future,
"The ONE FC Summit in Singapore was a great experience. This was an opportunity to get different perspectives on the sport, from gym owners, owners of different MMA organisations, sponsors, journalists etc. This was also a great platform to meet and interact with some of the most influential people from the MMA world which should lead to more opportunities for FCC fighters and also, in the future, opportunities for foreign fighters at FCC."
For more information about FCC visit: http://www.fullcontactchampionship.com/
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via:SBNation
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