Ritu “The Indian Tigress” Phogat, 25, of Bhiwani, Haryana, India was one of the ONE Championship athletes who participated in the official “ONE: Age of Dragons” open workout in Beijing, China on November 13, 2019. Training out Evolve MMA in Singapore, she is set to make her professional mixed martial arts debut.
“I am so excited for my debut,” Phogat stated. “I’ve worked very hard for months so I can give my fans a good show here. I know a lot of people are watching, wanting to see what I can do in there.”
Featuring six MMA bouts, four kickboxing contests and one Muay Thai match, ONE Championship will hold “ONE: Age of Dragons” at the Cadillac Arena in Beijing on November 16, 2019. In the seventh bout of the evening, Phogat will compete in an MMA match in the women’s atomweight division against “Captain Marvel” Nam Hee Kim (김남희) of South Korea.
“I’ve trained hard with the world champions at Evolve MMA,” Phogat said. “I’ve studied all different kinds of martial arts disciplines and I’m continuously adding to my repertoire.”
“I’ll get better and better each day until I reach my ultimate goal,” the Indian Evolve MMA fighter added. “I want to become a world champion from India and make history. I want to make my family proud.”
Like Phogat, Kim is also making her ONE Championship debut at “ONE: Age of Dragons.” Training out of Ssen Gym and Daecheon Jiu-Jitsu, the Korean contender holds a professional MMA record of 1 win and 0 loss.
Phogat was originally set to face Cindy Tiong of Labuan, Malaysia at “ONE: Age of Dragons.” The Malaysian contender pulled out from the fight for an undisclosed reason and was replaced by Kim.
Born in Balali, Haryana, Phogat is the third daughter of former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. In 2002, she started her wrestling training under his tutelage.
CONAN Daily 