Ritu Phogat prepares for first fight of the year with an eye on world title

Ritu Phogat’s face lights up as her father Mahavir appears on screen. The media interaction to promote her fifth ONE Championship MMA bout is still a few minutes away from beginning officially, and the duo makes the most of it to catch up.

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After all, Ritu and Mahavir have not seen each other, except on video call, since February 2020 when the former international wrestler left for Singapore to pursue her MMA career. Since then, she has not been able to return home due to subsequent Covid-induced lockdowns as well as her fights (she holds an unbeaten 4-0 record so far).

“We talk to her twice a day. Me, her mother, her sisters always remind her the reason she is staying abroad,” the senior Phogat said.

The youngest daughter of the Phogat household is now gearing up for her first fight of the year against United States’ Bi Nguyen on Saturday. It is a build-up to the ONE Championship Atomweight Grand Prix. The GP, starting from May 28, consists of eight fighters including Ritu. The winner will get to challenge current ONE Atomweight world champion Angela Lee in November for the world title.

“I have missed a lot in these months staying away from home. My sister (Sangita) got married, then my nephew (wrestler Babita’s son) was born too. I have missed those occasions. The times were challenging during lockdown in a foreign country. It was difficult to train also, since MMA is new for me. Had it been wrestling I could have taken advice from my father and sisters,” Ritu said.

“I ordered a boxing bag online and practiced at home. I used to watch a lot of Khabib’s (Nurmagomedov) video online. He also came from a wrestling background. So, I tried to follow his moves and improve my striking. I used to record the videos of training in my apartments and send it to my MMA coach. I think, overall, living alone has made me mentally strong.”

The lockdown situation has improved in Singapore in the last few months. Still Ritu and the other fighters are not allowed to train indoors. They have been instructed to train outdoors in a group of maximum five people. Ritu’s fight along with the other contests on Saturday will be held in an empty arena.

“My next opponent has more experience than me. She has a standing game. I think it will be a fight between her striking against my wrestling. I don’t think anybody in the ONE Atomweight category has better wrestling capability than me. I hope to improve my striking in the next fight,” Ritu said when asked about Nguyen, who has a 5-6 win-loss career record.

The US fighter, who moved to the country from Vietnam as a child, however, is not happy with the positioning of the fight against Ritu just ahead of the Grand Prix.

“I have a chip on my shoulder because of the timing and because of the opponent. I think that having me as a warm-up fight for her before the Grand Prix is an insult to me, but I have to prove that,” Nguyen told onefc.com.

“I’m nobody’s warm-up fight. I’m nobody’s stepping stone."

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