About the tournament

The tournament called “Bulldog-URPA-PAL” Tournament was organized by the well-known sports company Bulldog Sportz Management, which promotes several major sporting disciplines, such as Armwrestling, Padel and Muay Thai. In March 2019,Bulldog Armwrestling signed an agreement with the global Professional Armwrestling League (PAL) on cooperation for the development of professional armwrestling in India and the United Arab Emirates.

The tournament was held in the 5-star hotel “Chancery Pavillion” in the center of Bangalore, the “silicon valley of India”. The tournament brought together about 65 athletes from 11 Indian states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Assam, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chattisgarh. Along with Indian athletes, the athletes from Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates also participated in the tournament.

The tournament had five parts, each one more exciting than the other.

1. Press conference
2. Seminar by Igor Mazurenko
3. Seminar bi Zil Fadli, PAL Head Referee
4. URPA ranking
5. Players party

Kirill Yakovlev, PAL Communications Director, on the event:

Bulldog Armwrestling created really luxury conditions for the tournament participants which left unforgettable impressions in the heart of each participant. There was free food and drinks through out the day for the athletes, beautiful trophies and trendy t-shirts. According to the athletes, this is the first time they attended an event like this. The exclusive “Pullers Party” party at the closing of the tournament was the icing on the cake. .

The athletes deeply appreciated the two seminars by Igor and Zil, because for the first time in their career they understood the different aspects of professional arm wrestling and how they can take their skills to the next level.

Igor Mazurenko’s seminar “Introduction to Armwrestling” was devoted to the review of professional armwrestling, training of athletes, creation of individual training programs and safety of competitive activities of professional athletes. This was again an eye-opener to most athletes as most of them are self-taught.

The refere certification seminar by Zil Fadli, was attended by 36 people and lasted for four intense hours. This seminar ended with an exam for the status of a PAL / URPA Certified referee. And now for the first time, India has three URPA certified referees.

For a first-timer, the tournament execution by Bulldog Armwrestling was almost flawless, thanks to the dedicated work of Zil Fadli and the creativity of the host Ujjwal Mukhia who brought emotion and energy to the entire event. At the finals the passions reached the peak as athletes, press and guests thronged around the stage.

Although all the matches were exciting, fights of the rising stars of the Indian professional armwrestling- Nawab Singh, Pranjit Saikia, Debajit Sarma, Monozh Debnat and other talented athletes- were especially memorable.

Ronnie Sehgal, Bulldog Sportz Management CEO and tournament’s organizer:

The most important achievement of the first professional rating tournament in India is the fact that armwrestling teams from different states, which were previously divided due to the actions of the functionaries of the amateur armwrestling federation of India, compete today as a single team. Despite all the efforts of the Indian representatives of the WAF, the rating tournament brought together the best Indian athletes who will get their rightful place in the URPA world professional ranking and will be able to compete with athletes from other countries.

This was made possible largely thanks to such strong-willed leaders and true armwrestling enthusiasts like Mr. Anup Rajkonwar and Mr. Hridayananda Konwar from Assam, Mr. Ashok Arya, Secretary of the Armwrestling Association of the State of Haryana and other leaders of clubs, teams and state associations who contributed to the participation of their athletes in our event. I want to thank them on behalf of all the organizers and athletes.

Also, this historical event would have been impossible without our sponsors, who not only helped us organize the tournament-  Mr. Raja from the Sowparnika Projects company, who committed to help Indian armwrestlers to purchase their own homes and Dr. Banarji from the Sakra World clinic..

And of course, all this would have been impossible without the efforts of the Bulldog Sportz team, the PAL / URPA team in the person of Igor Mazurenko, Zil Fadli and Kirill Yakovlev, the O3 Events company and many others.

Igor Mazurenko,  PAL President:

The Bulldog-URPA-PAL tournament can be called the fulfillment of our dream about how a professional rating armwrestling tournament should look like. Venue, respect for athletes, work with sponsors, professionalism of the organizers and partners - all this can be confidently called the standard of a professional rating tournament. Although for unavoidable and acrimonious reasons very few athletes took part in the tournament, we saw the real elite of the Indian armwrestling. After seeing these athletes I can say that Indian armwrestlers  are very serious competition to the best armwrestlers in the world.