Mumbai Enjoys Fight Nights

Mumbai Enjoys Fight Nights:
The small wooden door in a film studio complex deep within the heart of Mumbai creaks open to pumping music, a beer-guzzling crowd and two men raining punches and kicks onto each other in the makeshift ring.Welcome to India’s very own fight night.

A ring girl displays a placard before the start of a bout at a fight night in Mumbai February 25, 2012.

Sangram Bhakre (R), a 21-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, fights during a bout at a fight night in Mumbai.

Members of the audience react as they watch a mixed martial arts bout at a fight night in Mumbai.

Amjad Khan, a 30-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, falls down during a bout at a fight night in Mumbai.

Members of the audience react as they watch a mixed martial arts bout at a fight night in Mumbai.First started around three years ago by Full Contact Championship (FCC), a company founded to promote mixed martial arts, fight nights are slowly gaining popularity in India, a nation where people traditionally have had no inclination to pay money to watch somebody be physically beaten in front of them. But increasing globalisation, and years of growing up watching overseas professional wrestling broadcasts, have given younger Indians a taste for seeing the real thing themselves. Picture taken February 25, 2012.

Sangram Bhakre (L), a 21-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, gestures after winning a bout at a fight night in Mumbai February 25, 2012. First started around three years ago by Full Contact Championship (FCC), a company founded to promote mixed martial arts, fight nights are slowly gaining popularity in India, a nation where people traditionally have had no inclination to pay money to watch somebody be physically beaten in front of them. But increasing globalisation, and years of growing up watching overseas professional wrestling broadcasts, have given younger Indians a taste for seeing the real thing themselves. Picture taken February 25, 2012.

Gaurav Pandey, a 20-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, is treated by a doctor during a bout at a fight night in Mumbai February 25, 2012. First started around three years ago by Full Contact Championship (FCC), a company founded to promote mixed martial arts, fight nights are slowly gaining popularity in India, a nation where people traditionally have had no inclination to pay money to watch somebody be physically beaten in front of them. But increasing globalisation, and years of growing up watching overseas professional wrestling broadcasts, have given younger Indians a taste for seeing the real thing themselves. Picture taken February 25, 2012.