Hyderabad, June 9, 2022: In a first in the history of Indian Pro-boxing, Hyderabad based Boxing Promoters, TIAR, have roped in legendary Mexican American combat-sport trainer Javier Mendez to train and mentor Indian boxers for the Hellsbay Fight League (HFL) which will commence later this year.
The HFL was announced last month and is a first-of-its-kind Pro Boxing league planned along with the Indian Boxing Council. The league will run on a unique concept of people’s ownership.
Javier, who has been associated with some of the biggest names in the field of combat sport and martial arts, will be training the boxers selected for the HFL.
He will not only guide one of the teams in managing their boxers but will also personally be part of the governing council of the league and plan the training of each of the 36 boxers in the fray.
Javier Mendez : The Legend
Javier Mendez started training in martial arts in 1978 and started his kickboxing career in 1985. After winning world championship titles in 1992 and 1995. Javier started training fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) in 1996 and has trained many champions like multiple-times winner Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagedov, BJ Penn, Frank Shamrock and Cain Velasquez.
The legendary MMA trainer said he is excited to be part of the league as he sees a lot of potential in the Indian combat sport scene. “There is no doubt that the Indian combat sports athletes are extremely talented, and this is pretty evident from the exemplary performances that Indians put up at the Olympics or the world championships. We have seen more and more people from India tuning into the sport and wanting more quality content from the region,” Javier said.
“It is high time that the talent that is available in India is provided with more local and international opportunities to make the sport commercially attractive for the entire community,” he added.
Talking about the league, and the impact it could have on the Indian pro-boxing future, Javier sounded optimistic about the possibilities. “I have trained the fighters in the UFC since 1996 and the one thing that made UFC such a big hit is that it is a huge brand and very well-structured organization. The success of UFC is not that of the individual athletes but that of the brand that ensured hundreds of talented athletes had a stable career with regular income. I am hoping that Hellsbay Fight League will have a similar impact on the boxing community in India. It opens up a ton of opportunities to the boxers, their families and the rest of the boxing community both financially and emotionally. I am eager to see HFL launch multiple seasons over the next few years making boxing a leading sport in the country and the world.”
CEO of TIAR and Promoter of HFL, Akshar Madhavaram said that HFL would be keen to leverage on Javier’ experience.
“Javier Mendez is an extremely humble human being and a legendary combat sports coach, he has trained 100s of athletes at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) and has been associated with the top combat sports leagues and shows globally. We at TIAR would like to leverage his experience to make HFL into a boxing league which adheres to the global standards and at the same time expose our boxers to the rigor that takes to make it into the top tier athletes list. We also feel that this would bring in a lot more international opportunities to the Indian boxers after they train under his guidance.”
