JITENDRE KHARE : ENTER FIGHT FEST

Malaysia has only a population of more than 31 million. But we are very fortunate that there are many local MMA promotions that are active in organising MMA fights. Names like the pioneering Ultimate Beatdown of Johor, Warriors FC ( now with new management is known as Golden Warriors FC ) up north in Penang and in East Malaysia, we have Jesselton Fight League, Fight Fest and B.A.C and most recently Rampage FC; and of course we cannot talk about MMA without mentioning about MIMMA, considered the best and biggest amateur tournament in Asia, which is currently in it's 5th season

In these local promotions, there is a team that has made their presence felt. This team is TEAM RELENTLESS from India. Why would an Indian team come all the way from Mumbai to Malaysia to compete? For a country as huge as India with population that is over 1.3 billion people, MMA promotions there are still developing. 

Cricket is the number one sports watched in India. Traditional martial arts such as Karate, wrestling and boxing are widely followed too. MMA is relatively new. It only recently caught on from the popularity of UFC. Several Indian promotions has emerged there such as Super Fight League, Full Contact Championship and most recently Yoddha Fighting Championship.

TEAM RELENTLESS is lead by Jitendre Khare or more fondly known as Vicky. Jitendre has trained his fighters well and they have grown and develop through the fight scene in Malaysia.

Chaitanya winning the UB 17 featherweight title

Chaitanya Gavali training with Team Relentless, fought before in Borneo Fighting Championship in 2014. a year later he fought in Ultimate Beatdown 17 to win the featherweight title belt and then one month later achieved another victory in winning the Warriors FC featherweight title.

Anil Mehta defeated a couple of local emerging talent in STAND Kickboxing in Kota Kinabalu and last year in a Super-Fight 65kg Kickboxing match became the title champion.

with Anil Mehta with his Fight Fest K1 Title Belt

Yadwinder Singh whom recently fought at WSOF Global Championship last year , tasted multiple victory in Borneo FC, Ultimate Beatdown and Warriors FC.

Ex ONE Championship fighter, Susovan Ghosh, the co-founder of Team Relentless was also an alumni of Ultimate Beatdown. 

Young fighter Rudransh Azad, spend his formative amateur career in Malaysia, collecting wins in Jesselton Fight League 2, Ultimate Beatdown 23. He then went on to win Yodhha FC Lightweight belt in April this year. Then in Sept he was back in Malaysia, collecting another win in Golden Warriors FC. 

In that same event his team mate Navdeep Aggarwal the Yodhha FC flyweight champion defeated Seah Zhang Yu, cosidered the best flyweight in Malaysia.

with Navdeep (L) & Rudransh (R) with their victory souvenir from Golden Warriors FC

In this weekend FIGHT FEST IV: ART OF COMBAT (7-8 Oct 2017), Jitendre will be here in Kota Kinabalu with Susovan Ghosh to compete in grappling. Jitendre himself is aiming for the Fight Fest Mata Leao title belt, which will be given to the winner of the absolute blue / purple belt category.

Jitendre aiming to win the 1st Fight Fest Mata Leao belt

On his grappling experience,

"I have competed and won at 3 Bangkok Opens, won a Gold at WPJJC Trials in HK in 2012, represented India at Asian Beach Games where I couldn't fight my Bronze medal match after injuring my shoulders in the semis.

Jitendre started in martial arts journey since he was a boy in school. Karate was very popular in school and he took it up and reached the level of Brown Belt. He also took lesson in boxing and kickboxing as it was part of the school's curriculum. 

After graduating from high school, he dabbled into mud wrestling. At one point of time he switched his interest to power-lifting but unfortunately an injury made him stop and he began to train in martial arts again as rehab to develop better flexibility.

Watching PRIDE was the spark for Jitendre to go into MMA. Doing his research, he eventually took up Judo and under the guidance of India's top Judoka Ashok Chaudary Jitendre began to develop a keen interest in the grappling arts.

"I was fortunate enough that he agreed to accept me as his student and under his tutelage I got to represent my State at the Senior National Judo Championships in 2010."

Through his martial arts journey, Jitendre discover that Mumbai lacks a legit MMA gym, so in 2010 Jitendre started his own MMA gym.

"The knowledge and access to quality trainers was very limited at that point but I guess the eagerness to learn and grow was what got us to this point. We were also lucky to be joined by Coach Nick Kilstein, NCAA Division 1 wrestler alongside whom I had the privilege of training Team Relentless and also learning wrestling from. His contribution to not just the team but to growth of MMA in India is simply irreplaceable. My Head Coach Darren DaSilva has been a huge influence in my martial arts journey and has been my mentor and like an elder brother to me. 

I received my Blue Belt from him in 2013 and then had the privilege of training with some brilliant BJJ coaches such as Prof Shane Suzuki, Thomas Fan, Carlos Almeida and Marcio Cesar.

with Mario Cesar

Darren sir has been helping and guiding me since 2012. He has been my Head Coach. Till date he hasn't charged us a single penny to train us. I guess it's an affiliation of trust and respect."

at Fight G Singapore

The fight team of Team Relentless is base in Evolution Gym, which Jitendre is part owner. It is highly regarded as the home of MMA in India and the pioneer in the sports in India.

with his Team Relentless at Evolution Gym

From time to time Jitendre would travel to Singapore to train at Fight G MMA Academy to train under Coach Darren DaSilva. He also made regular trips to train at AKA Thailand under Marcio Cesar.

Realising that there's a huge talent pool in India for MMA, but what lacking is a grassroot program that can unearth these talents, then progress to develop and grow them, Jitendre together with Vicky Tulsani, Susovan Ghosh and Khriemelie Metha founded Yoddha FC in 2014.

fights at Yoddha FC

They wanted to use Yoddha as a platform to produce more MMA fighters from India. Yodhha is still developing as an amateur league promotions, hence Jitendre consider himself still have a lot to learn and has been sending Team Relentless fighters to Malaysia, Thailand, Philipines and recently to the middle east to not only gain valuable fight experience but also to learn the fine aspect of organizing fight events. 

Yoddha FC entering it's second season in Cctober

The passion for MMA and the grappling arts is what drive him and his team. Their dream is to grow the sports of MMA in India, to put an Indian MMA athlete in UFC and to have the very first home grown BJJ blackbelt in India.

Come and watch Jitendre and his team mate Susovan compete in Fight Fest IV tomorrow at Centre Point Sabah, 4th Floor Palm Square.

with Susovan