In a major development for Indian MMA, a joint venture between Jackson-Wink and India’s Superhuman Gym is about to host its grand opening.
Superhuman Gym is home to some of the best Indian MMA fighters, like Bharat Kandare and Sumeet Khade. Founded back in the year 2016 with the aim of promoting MMA as a fitness sport, the gym soon established itself as a top MMA training gym in India.
Opening up about the history of the gym, Somesh Kmara in an interview said, “Superhuman Gym was officially launched in March 2016 with the sole purpose of providing alternate modes of fitness training. We combined aspects of weight training with MMA training and provided a package to the clients.”
Since then team Superhuman has not looked back. In their short run, they have managed to get their fighters in promotions like Ganryujima, Super Fight League, UFC, Brave, and ACB. The fast growth of the team can be credited to their strategic tie-up with Jackson Wink MMA for the UFC fighter development program. Opening up about what exactly the program was, Somesh Kamra, the co-owner of Superhuman Gym says, “UFC was interested in learning more about the MMA scene in India. It was around 2012 that we connected for the first time. Then after a lot of brainstorming, they came to the conclusion that Indian MMA fighters needed a fighter development program,” Kamra said, “They asked me to pick a few MMA fighters from India. These selected fighters would be sent to the USA to train in the Jackson-Wink MMA gym, all costs paid by the UFC.”
This program was attended by three fighters in total. Siddharth Chandanshive, who hasn’t competed in MMA since the program, Sumeet Khade, who is currently on a three-fight winning streak, and Bharat Kandare, who made history by becoming the first Indian to compete in the UFC. The program was a success. Kamra said, “the fighter development program was a UFC brainchild and it truly helped the fighters in many ways. When we are thrown in there with the likes of Jon Jones, BJ Penn, Holly Holm etc, there is automatically a WOW and a feel-good factor. With that comes the confidence of performance and obviously the immense learning from masters like Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn.”
This fighter development program later turned out to be the building blocks for Superhuman JW. The Superhuman JW model was then created. Opening up about what exactly it is, Kamra said, “we are a service-based industry with about a decade of experience in the fitness business and half a decade of involvement in the MMA training business. Whilst we have established Superhuman as a knowledgeable brand (with the likes of Bharat Kandare in the UFC) and about a thousand active clients at our gyms, we felt the experience of Greg and Mike will add to the future plans at Superhuman. It’s a strategic alliance between Superhuman and Jackson-Wink that includes a coaches exchange program, fighter exchange program and a lot more.”
So finally, the grand-opening of the legendary Superhuman-JW is here. The gym will open on June 6, in a formal event which will be attended by the likes of Udupi MLA, Shri Raghupati Bhat, Ashok Pai, India’s former Minister of Fisheries Pramodh Madhwaraj, and many others. The gym will be for Indian MMA fighters. Speaking on the impact it might have on Indian MMA, Somesh Kamra said, “it will only benefit the Indian MMA community. At Superhuman we try and compare/compete with global standards hence we spend a lot of time and money on giving the local talent here the best. Imagine Jon Jones or Holly Holm coming for seminars to India and spending time with the talent in India. Won’t that be huge!!?”
