In April, a night of boxing, kickboxing, MMA and wrestling is planned at Sungod Arena in North Delta.
The Canada Cup event, presented by Knockout Events, promises “the best of the best” representing Canada, the U.S., U.K. and India on Saturday, April 20.
Details are posted on knockoutevents.ca, where a link for tickets directs buyers to tickettailor.com/events/knockouteventsltd/1109976. The price is $2,000 for Premium Table VIP Floor Seats in the rink on 112 Street, and a VIP Individual Seat sells for $200.
Knockout Events is an enterprise launched by Neenu Bhullar as she enters the fight-promotions arena.
“I’m from the Richmond Bhullar family and we’ve been in the athletic realm for a while,” Bhullar noted. “(Her husband) Arjan Bhullar wrestled in the Olympics and then moved onto MMA and won the world title, and his father Avtar Bhullar, wrestled before him.”
At Sungod, for spectators of all ages, they’re putting on “an MMA night with competitive and exciting fights,” Bhullar noted, with red-carpet entrance, table seating, catered food, VIP bar and blackjack tables for floor patrons.
“We’re expecting about 2,500, upwards of 3,000 people in attendance,” she said.
The full Canada Cup card will be announced over the next week or so, Bhullar explained.
“We’ll be hosting a local Surrey boy, Josh Jauncey, who is #2 in the world for kickboxing, (and) Eric Basran, a Commonwealth Games bronze-medalist in boxing who is also from Surrey, and undefeated MMA fighter Jag Bhullar. We have a full card of athletes ready to put on an exciting show, which we want to stand out from other events locally.
“For me personally,” Bhullar added, “I wanted to make sure that it’s a community night out, so it still has a community feel to it. We want to have all ages there and also to create a space for youngsters to kind of channel their energy and gain an identity through sport. We figured North Delta is the perfect community for that, and Sungod is a great place for it. It all fits with our identity as an organization.”
She said event invitations have been sent to local government and agency officials including Delta Mayor George Harvie and Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, along with local chiefs of police and fire.
Weigh-ins are planned Friday, April 19 at the CAVE gym on Scott Road, starting at 6 p.m.
Raised in Surrey, Bhullar said she’s always been involved in sports, mostly soccer as a kid.
“I do some MMA recreationally, and I like to get into the gym and do some kickboxing and stay active,” she added. “I mean, I’ve got the three kids so I won’t ever enter the MMA world as an athlete so I thought, why not put on an event, which kind of allows me to stay involved without actually competing.”