Ritu Phogat trains in Singapore for ONE Championship debut

Team Udayavani, Jun 15, 2019, 1:27 PM IST

Singapore: Former India wrestler Ritu Phogat has been training hard at Singapore mixed martial art academy ahead of her debut in the ONE Championship, to be broadcasted in more than 140 countries.

Ritu, who comes from a family of decorated wrestlers with sisters Geeta, Babita, Sangeeta and cousin Vinesh all renowned professional grapplers, had earlier this year decided to change the course of her career and go the Mixed Martial Arts way.

“I hope to win the ONE Championship,” Ritu told PTI on Saturday.

“The training at Evolve MMA is strengthening me in martial art disciplines and boosting my confidence,” she added.

Ritu, who trains twice a day in all different martial arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, wrestling and boxing, said she was working on improving her strength, agility and speed.

EVOLVE MMA is the Singapore-based brand martial art academy with the largest collection of World Champions across sports such as Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Wrestling and No-Gi Grappling.

“Ritu Phogat will be competing in the 52kg Atomweight division when she debuts in the Championship,” said Jason Petlueng, director of marketing at Evolve Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) which has over 700 trainees in various phases.

“EVOLVE MMA aims to help develop Ritu Phogat skill set, to further enable her to realise her dream of becoming India’s first MMA World Champion,” he added.

Teco Shinzato, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion and EVOLVE MMA Instructor, added: “Ritu is a world-class wrestler and is learning all the other martial arts disciplines very quickly.

Besides Ritu, Roshan Mainam, the four times Delhi State Wrestling Champion, has also joined EVOLVE Fight Team in February this year.