Indian boxing star to fight UFC world champion in history-making MVP event

Neeraj Goyat vs Anthony "Showtime" Pettis

Most Valuable Promotions’ (MVP) Indian boxing star Neeraj Goyat (21-4-2, 9 KOs) will face former UFC lightweight world champion Anthony "Showtime" Pettis (25-14-0 in MMA, 11 KOs) in a six-round super welterweight bout at 154 lbs on Saturday, January 23, 2027.

The event is presented by IPBL Boxing and sanctioned by the Indian Boxing Council. Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Chennai are in contention to host, with the city and venue to be announced in November.

Goyat, 34, from Haryana, has spent more than a decade taking Indian professional boxing abroad. He was the first Indian boxer to be ranked by the WBC and is a former WBC Asia champion.

In 2024 he became the first international fighter to sign with MVP, the American boxing and MMA promotion founded by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian.

That November he beat Brazil's Whindersson Nunes on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson card, a night watched live by 108 million people on Netflix. Now comes the biggest fight of his career, at home.

Neeraj Goyat said: “I have fought in China, in Thailand, in America and in the UK, and every time I was the Indian on somebody else's card. This time the card is ours. I want to thank MVP and Nakisa Bidarian for believing in me and helping bring this moment to India. Anthony is a real champion and I respect everything he has done, but I have waited my whole career to fight a name like this in front of my own people. I am not giving that night away.”

Pettis, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, won the WEC Lightweight title in 2010 and the UFC Lightweight World Championship in 2013, beating Benson Henderson for both. He made his professional debut in January 2007, so fight night falls 20 years after his first professional fight, and days before he turns 40.

Outside the ring, Pettis is a co-promoter of the Indian Fight League (IFL), India's MMA league, and the Indian Pro Boxing League (IPBL), and has spent the last two years helping build combat sports in India.

For Pettis, the fight is also personal. His younger brother, former Bellator Bantamweight World Champion Sergio Pettis, fought in Hyderabad at Road to IPBL 2 in March 2025 and lost a unanimous decision to India's Sabari Jaishankar. Anthony is coming back to India to settle the score.

Anthony Pettis said: "I have seen what Indian fighters can do, and Neeraj is the best of them. That is who I want. I have thought a lot about Sergio’s loss. This one is for him, and I am coming to win."

Together, Goyat and Pettis bring a global boxing show to India, making it the biggest card in the history of Indian boxing. They are joined on the card by the country's top-ranked boxers, including Akshay Chahal of Rohtak, Faizan Anwar of Kolkata, Pavan Kalyan of Hyderabad, Ritesh Singh of Dehradun and Laldinsanga Ramlawt of Mizoram, along with other leading fighters from across India.

IPBL Boxing is India's biggest professional boxing promoter and one of its first, with more than ten years of staging fights in the country. It runs the Indian Pro Boxing League, India's first franchise-based professional boxing league, and the BoxingBay fight series.

The men behind it are co-founders Akshar Madhavaram and Prashanth Singh, alongside actor and producer Rana Daggubati. Its events are sanctioned by the Indian Boxing Council and have been broadcast live on DAZN, UFC Fight Pass & Aha.

Rana Daggubati said: "Every big sport in this country started with one night that people still talk about years later. This can be that night for boxing. A world champion and India's best fighter, in front of an Indian crowd. We have never had that before, and I can't wait to be ringside."

Nakisa Bidarian and Jake Paul, co-founders of MVP, said: "We signed Neeraj because we believed he had the potential to become a global boxing star and help put Indian boxing on the world stage. Now he has the opportunity to headline a historic event in his home country against one of the biggest names in combat sports. Anthony Pettis is an MMA icon, but this is boxing, and we expect Neeraj to show exactly why we believed in him from day one."

Full card, broadcast and ticket details will be announced with the host city in November.