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Ritu “The Indian Tigress” Phogat had one factor on her thoughts when she swapped wrestling for blended martial arts – ONE Championship gold.
The Indian phenom will take one other step towards that aim if she will be able to defeat Stamp Fairtex within the ONE Ladies’s Atomweight World Grand Prix Championship Last, which is about because the co-main occasion of ONE: WINTER WARRIORS this Friday, 3 December.
A victory over the previous ONE Atomweight Muay Thai and Kickboxing World Champion on the Singapore Indoor Stadium would earn Phogat the prospect to face “Unstoppable” Angela Lee for her ONE Ladies’s Atomweight World Title in 2022.
Whereas many thought the wrestling sensation had potential, few predicted her fast ascension to the higher echelon of her new sport. Nevertheless, “The Indian Tigress” believes she has been making ready her entire life for this chance.
“We have been taught from childhood to battle to win – to provide one hundred pc,” Phogat says of her upbringing. “Defeat was by no means on our thoughts. It was like we may by no means lose.”
Phogat realized these ideas as a member of her well-known Indian wrestling household. Actually, their lives have been depicted within the record-breaking film “Dangal,” and the fact was simply as fascinating.
Beneath the tutelage of her father, Mahavir Singh Phogat, the Haryana-born fighter adopted within the footsteps of her pioneering older sisters – Geeta and Babita – and earned aggressive success, culminating in gold on the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship and silver within the World Beneath-23 Wrestling Championships a 12 months later.
“The Indian Tigress” moved to Singapore in 2019 to commit herself full-time to blended martial arts coaching at Evolve MMA, however she believes her background in wrestling has given her the absolute best basis to spring from.
“[Being] a wrestler means there’s a profit in blended martial arts. When you see the highest 10 fighters in blended martial arts, seven of them have a wrestling background,” she says.
Along with her wrestling base, Phogat credit her work ethic and mindset with permitting her to adapt to her demanding schedule.
“From childhood, it was taught that I needed to go there and provides my greatest and never await [my opponent],” she provides.
“Within the [Circle], I don’t give any probability to my opponents – I simply go and do my factor.”
Her evolution has been spectacular, and the outcomes converse for themselves. Regardless of Phogat’s roller-coaster journey to the Grand Prix closing, she’s compiled a 7-1 report and have become the #4-ranked atomweight contender in simply two years.
Phogat was clearly prepared for the tough calls for of blended martial arts coaching and competitors. Nevertheless, she was additionally humble sufficient to know her constraints and settle for that she needed to study a complete array of recent expertise.
The 27-year-old continues to work diligently on completely different combating disciplines together with her coaches, and she or he made important strides in each space to attain fast features on the worldwide stage.
“I had my bodily health from the start. So, for blended martial arts, I realized new strategies. Daily, I prepare in all the things – Muay Thai, BJJ, boxing. Daily, I’m working onerous,” she says.
“And on daily basis, the advance is seen. And I get compliments from the coaches, so I’m fairly pleased concerning the developments which might be occurring in me.
“It’s the unlearning and relearning of the little nuances which have saved me on the go, enabling me to turn out to be a greater model of myself with each passing day.”
That stated, she is going to all the time be a wrestler at coronary heart. Till the day comes that her opponents successfully counter her experience, Phogat will proceed to make use of her strongest asset to safe victory.
When Phogat was harm by early event favourite Meng Bo of their quarterfinal bout at ONE: EMPOWER this previous September, her coronary heart helped her to outlive the onslaught. Nevertheless, it was her grappling instincts that led her to a come-from-behind win.
Wrestling is constructed into each fiber of her anatomy, and it’ll take a particular skill to cease it – one thing she believes Stamp doesn’t possess.
“If I’ve only one ability, and I’m all the time profitable with it, then why would I modify that ability? The day I really feel that somebody can counter my wrestling, I’ll take into consideration what I can attempt subsequent,” she says.
“As my MMA idol Khabib Nurmagomedov as soon as stated, ‘My type will not be like anybody else’s. I’m not a typical wrestler.’ I’d supply the same response on this context, as Stamp Fairtex has by no means confronted an opponent with my wrestling credentials and pedigree.
“I need to present everybody, via my work, that I’m the perfect. Till now, I’ve proved that, and I’ll present it within the closing additionally.”
Learn extra: 5 Causes To Watch ONE: WINTER WARRIORS
