this story originally appeared in on apr 24 2017mumbai the leagueformat shorter versions of sports have seen a huge rise in india with the total count of leagues going up to 11 across sports latest to join the club is super boxing league sbl from the promoters of super fight league mixed martial arts british business magnet and sports enthusiast bil dosanjh and twotime world champion boxer amir khanthe mushrooming of the leagues started in 2013 with the success of the indian premier league ipl and while no other sport league been as successful as ipl pro kabaddi league and indian super league football have attracted significant audience prompting the launch of similar leagues for sports including wrestling badminton tennis futsal mixed martial arts and more as these faster and shorter format leagues took india by stormscheduled from july 7 to august 12 sbl is being launched in association with international boxing associations aiba pro boxing apb sbl will also be a franchisebased model with a unique point scoring system similar to sfl which is being introduced for the first time in the history of professional boxing wherein a boxer can claim six points on winning a bout through knockoutthe sbl will consist of eight franchises and each team will comprise six players five male boxers and one female boxer with six backup players every teamthere will be competitions in six different weight categories with bouts of 4 rounds of 3 minutes eachdosanjh founderceo of super boxing league said that boxing was a natural progression from sfl india has always done well in boxing and yet after 11leagues we dont have a boxing league in india we see a big opportunity here and while sports like mma and boxing are individual sports we have found good success in making sfl a team sport we are doing the same with boxing turning it into a team sport he told eteven according to sports experts while cricket takes the lions share in india excitement and appetite for contact sports in india has seen a phenomenal growth in the past few years be it kabaddi wrestling or mma wwe has always enjoyed fan following in india while ufc has seen its popularity growing et had recently reported that bahrains royal familysupported brave combat federation is going to invest 60 million on mma in india which shows the potential of contact sportssports experts believe that if dosanjh and khan manage to pull off sbl they will be the first to have delivered two separate leagues in a year ever aiba president chingkuo wu feels india has a natural platform for the promotion of boxing sbl will further enhance indian boxing perception on the international stage and provide yet another career pathway for aiba boxers kuo wu saidin fact dosanjh did not deny a possibility of a fight between khan and indian sensation vijender singh yes we may get both of them to have a go at each other inside the ring