Christianity and philosophy – Daniel is an ordained Christian pastor , he has worked as an evangelist and tv preacher for many years. He produced and directed a short film called ‘Strangers’ and produced an entire season of episodes of the evangelical tv show Sanjeevani on Miraclenet tv and Jeevan ka Jal on CMM [ owned by aastha channel]. Daniel established a non profit organization called Faith fellowship church and travelled to the US and preached in Dallas Texas in 2009. Daniel always regards God to be the one who has made him all that he is today. He believes and still talks about how he was ‘raised from the dead’ in 1994 when an allergic reaction went horribly bad. In his ministry Daniel believes that he is ‘called’ to be a a Teacher , an evangelist and a pastor specializing in the Deliverance ministry [ Exorcism and the Spirit world]. In 2009 Daniel discontinued he work as full time Christian pastor and stepped out of an active Christian evangelical ministry. He believes that he has evolved in his spirituality and is much closer to God now as he practices his beliefs while doing a secular job as a martial arts Instructor, He believes in the one true God yet disassociates himself from mainstream religion or cultic group. He is still invited by many religious groups and churches to share his belief and faith. Daniel continues to be one of the founder members of Faith Fellowship Church as well as the Church of the Living Water [ founded by his parents ]. After moving to the United States in June 2016 Daniel and his family joined the Ferguson Church of the Nazarene as members.
Entry into MMA : Daniels father Solomon Isaac first received an invitation from Art Davie [ original owner of the UFC ] in 1993 to send a representative from India as a participant at UFC 1. During those days it was not easy to avail of a US visa for Indian nationals and although Shivaji Godse was selected to represent India at UFC 1 , he was unable to ever travel to the US or compete in the UFC. In the year 2000 Daniel began promoting Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) by organizing many national and international amateur MMA championships. He had established "Tigers Gym" which was India's first MMA training facility. He was successful in drawing crowds for his seminars and for his practical approach to self defence for the masses. Under Tigers Gym his fighters represented India in muay thai , kickboxing , sambo , pankration and amateur / pro mma between 2000 and 2007.
Featured on Television : Daniel has been featured on numerous TV news and sports channels including CNN IBN , Star Sports , Star plus , Zee tv , Star Majha etc . In 2008 HDNet in the United states featured a episode with fight highlights from “Clash of the Champions India” many of Daniels fighters were featured in the highlight reel action televised worldwide. In April 2011 Daniel along with MTV Roadies producer Rajiv Lakshman created a pilot episode of a fight based tv show called “Elaan E Jung” which pitted fighters of different martial arts styles to compete against each other with different rules for each round. The show was presented to Colors channel but was shelved and did not make it to a telecast. In 2009 Daniel worked with CPL London in "Alex Reid : Fight of his life" TV series which was telecasted all over Europe on the bravo channel. Daniel trained Alex Reid in an Indian version of mma on the tv show. In Aug 2012 Daniel was featured on SFL Challengers, Indias first MMA reality tv show as head MMA trainer. The series was a pioneering tv show which brought about much awareness for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in India.
MMA Federation and sports involvement : In the year 2004 Daniel helped establish the All India Mixed Martial Arts Association which continues to be the largest and only sanctioning body for the sport of MMA in the country. The AIMMAA under a panel of National chief delegates and Daniels guidance is the only sports body in India to sanction and organize mma events under direct permission of the "Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports ,Govt of India".
Teaching MMA in Nasik and Mumbai : Apart from Tigers Gym in Nasik, Daniel was the head mma coach along with Alan Fenandes as the head BJJ coach for Evolution MMA Mumbai from 2008 till 2013.
Asian MMA – Between 2000 and 2011 Daniel worked with numerous mma promotions in Asia , Europe and the middle east as a consultant / manager for Indian fighters including Legend Fighting Championships Hong Kong , Martial Combat [ on Star Sports] ADFC , Art of War FC and One Fighting Championships Singapore prior to signing with SFL
Celebrity trainer – Daniel has conducted training sessions for many personalities in the corporate and film world in Mumbai , Kushal Punjabi [ model and tv actor] , Faruk Kabir [ actor / director] , Rajeev Lakshman [ from the hit tv series MTV Roadies] , Yash Birla [ business tycoon] , Raj Kundra [ business tycoon] are some of the names who have trained with Daniel.
Women empowerment : In January 2013 Daniel supported by Raj Kundra and Super Fight League organized a series of self defence seminars all over Mumbai designed for women empowerment. The initiative was supported by The Shilpa Shetty foundation and DNA [ leading print media in India]
SFl Fitness: Between 2013 and 2014 Daniel , Lorelei [ wife ] and Alan Fenandes completely designed and setup the SFL fitness bootcamp in Nasik , this bootcamp would house and train fighters who were given scheduled bouts at the SFL fight nights in Mumbai , this one of a kind MMA training facility invited international MMA trainers like Dennis Hallman , Any Wang , Edgar Noordanus , Dejan Tesic and Marcos Santa Cruz Oliveira to prepare the Indian fighters during the peak season.
Super Fight league: Jan 2012 till aug 2013 Daniel headed India operations as COO of the Super Fight League and from 2013-2014 was the company CEO :
Work with the Fitness fraternity : in the years 2014 and 2015 Daniel worked with BodyPower India Expo as head of the MMA feature, he organized events for Sport MMA, Amateur full contact MMA, Grappling and Pro MMA events.
Historic MMA event : In 2015 Daniel worked with Super Fight League and as MMA consultant and matchmaker for the historic India vs Pakistan SFL show held in Dubai.
Traditional martial artsand Ishudo : after his fathers passing in dec 2011 Daniel became the head of family for the martial art of Ishudo as founded by Grandmaster Isaac, he is the head of the World Ishudo Association which is an entity in itself and has an international presence.
IMMAF : In July 2015 Daniel was nominated for board member elections at the historic AGM held in Las Vegas, a detailed interview with him was featured on the IMMAF website : http://www.immaf.org/interview-with-daniel-isaac-all-india-mma-association/, Daniel represented India at this event and was the head of Team India to participate at the World Amateur MMA Championships 2015 at the UFC fan expo.
Work with the Police and Military in India : Daniel began his work training the Indian military in martial arts immediately after winning the kickboxing gold medal in Crimea, he first taught the officers and recruits at the ADGM [ guided missile centre ] at the Artillery Centre Nasik Road in 1995 and later trained the recruits of the 116 Battalion TA Para regiment in Devlali. In April 2014 Daniel was part of a joint team which conducted martial arts training to the police training headquarters in Mumbai and Nashik. All UAC [ Unarmed Combat ] training for the police and military is based on the Ishudo system as founded by Daniel’s dad, the late Grandmaster Solomon Isaac who himself served the Indian Navy and trained the police and armed forces from the 1970’s till the late 1990’s.
Work in the USA: In June 2016 Daniel and his family moved to the United States. He and his wife currently own and operate 'Tigers Gym USA' as well as 'Fighting Fit International'. Daniel can be reached at: tigersgym@gmail.com