On a day that Bengaluru Yodhas demoralised UP Warriors 6-1 (36-19), the talk was less about what happened on the mat and in the arena but away from it with Sushil Kumar's absence.
With reports rife that the star wrestler has pulled out of the lucrative Pro Wrestling league, there was no official word on it from the organisers. However, Wrestling Federation of India chief Brijbhushan Sharan Singh maintained the star wrestler had been ruled out due to an injury he sustained while participating in Georgia. Some inside the wrestler's camp, though,gave a different story. They claimed the 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medallist and 2012 london silver medallist was miffed at the treatment handed out to him despite being an icon pick of Rs 38.20 lakh for the UP Warriors.
On the mat though, Warriors lost all but the women's 53-kg category. Sushil's contemporary in the 74-kg category, Bengaluru's Narsingh Yadav made most of the previous' presence by beating Mongolian Purevjav Unurbat 9-1 to round offa comfortable day.
Yodhas' star female Indian Babita Kumari also made light work of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist lalita Sehrawat. She was down 0-2 in first round before staging a comeback to win 8-2. The domineering performance of the day saw Azerbaijan's five-time World Championship medallist Yuliya Ratkevichpin Ritu Malik to win by a fall result. At toss, women's 69-kg and men's 125-kg categories were locked.