Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 11 Jun: Season 2 of the Aturto mixed martial arts (MMA) event will be held on 22 June at Farm Yard in East Siang district headquarters Pasighat.
Addressing mediapersons at the press club here on Tuesday, Aturto CEO Higio Taarak informed that the event will be held in two categories: amateur and semi-professional. “The gates will be open by 4 pm, and the event will start by 5 pm,” he informed.
The first six fights will be for the amateurs, to be followed by the semi-pro fights by 7:30 pm, Taarak said.
“There will be a difference between the amateur and the semi-professional fights. A few seats are based on first come, first served basis. We don’t sell fights, we sell experience,” he added.
“We tried our best in our earlier events to involve female fighters, and this time we are introducing female MMA matches. Arunachali female MMA fighter Dado Chumpi, who won the gold in the national championship, will be up against Genevive Pakma from Mehalaya,” Taarak said.
“We are also introducing Muay Thai fight in this season, for the first time. It will be Burthong Rai versus Udit Negi,” he informed.
Taarak continued: “We are trying to provide an avenue to the fighters to generate revenue and not to just depend on the sports quota or government jobs.”
Aturto COO Dhananjay Morang said, “We will ensure that Aturto reaches every corner of Arunachal Pradesh. We received good response in Ziro (L/Subansiri) earlier, and we look forward to covering all the districts in the state.”
There are 24 fighters this time – 12 amateurs and 12 semi-pros.
Some of the core fights will be Goodwin Ningshen versus Tor Perme, and Yumter Taipodia versus Kedo Sirie.
