Mumbai Fighters in a must-win game against Bangkok Elephants

From winning people's hearts on debut to getting blanked and then announcing our arrival with an impressive win over LA Matadors before again getting walloped, it has been a real roller-coaster ride for Venky's Mumbai Fighters. Now we have arrived at a juncture in this season where we can't afford to slip even once.

With just eight points in the kitty, we stand fifth in Group A, which therefore makes our match against Bangkok Elephants this Friday a must-win game.

We are fighting for a spot in play-offs with LA Matadors, which is placed fourth with ten points. Facing a bottom rung Bangkok team looks like an easy proposition, but not to forget they were impressive in their match against highly-placed Astana Arlans, the same team which blanked us 0-5.

The Thai side has an impressive roster. They have Worapoj Petchkoom, a 2004 Olympics bantamweight silver medallist. In the next edition of Olympics in Beijing, like me, he too was a quarterfinalist. But the boxers who have made some noise on the circuit are bantamweight Thathi Donchai and Wuttichai Masuk of Lightweight. The two Thai southpaws beat boxers from a formidable Astana side.

But then what matters to us is how strong our stable is. In the last fortnight, we have roped in five new boxers as reinforcements. Getting talent from boxing pockets of the world should help us. Ivan Ilnytskyy, a bantamweight pugilist and Light Heavyweight boxer Sergii Melnyk have flown down from Ukraine, the new boxing powerhouse of the world.

Charly Suarez, a promising lightweight from Philippines, joined forces last week and has impressed one and all in the camp for his punching speed and athleticism. In Konstantin Snigour, we have roped in an experienced hand in middleweight category. The Israeli boxer is No. 5 in Europe and the current national champion too.

Kyrgyzstan bantamweight national champion Mirbek Sherov came in yesterday morning and looks to be raring to go. The team now has an interesting blend of boxers from almost 10 different countries. One thing that binds them all is the thought of ensuring Fighters make the cut for play-offs.

To my understanding, at least three of the five new recruits should make their WSB debut for Venky's Mumbai Fighters this Friday.

If they do, the new bunch doesn’t have to go far for inspiration. Tips to make an impressive debut can be taken from the Tongan giant Uaine Fa Junior. The heavyweight boxer landed in Mumbai only a few hours before his WSB debut match against Arslanbek Makhmudov of Dynamo Moscow, which he eventually won.

Getting three points from the match against Bangkok will keep us in the hunt. At the same time we have to keep an eye on the progress LA makes. We fight them in US, after hosting Bangkok, on February 13. And if we manage to beat them in that fixture, like we did when they came to Mumbai, our road to play-offs will become much easier.

But for now, everyone in the Fighters camp is focused on the immediate task at hand, to tame the Elephants from Bangkok or say are waiting to eat Thai curry for dinner.