Want to finish the bout in the 1st round: Ritu Phogat

TIL Desk Sports/ It took Ritu Phogat about three minutes to open her mixed martial arts (MMA) account in November 2019 and she doesn”t want her second fight in the One Championship stable to last more than that. Ritu, the third sister of the famous Phogat family of wrestlers, will face Chinese Taipei”s Wu Chiao Chen on February 28 at the One: King of the Jungle in Singapore.

Ritu says that her training since her previous bout involved more focus on striking, a skill that is completely absent in wrestling but is integral to MMA. But she admits that her wrestling foundation gives her an advantage. “Yes it does help me a lot. Seven out of the top 10 fighters in MMA are those who came from a wrestling background. For me that is a big benefit,” Ritu said in New Delhi, where she held her first open workout session on Wednesday.

A good example of what she talks about is reigning UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who with 28 wins and no losses, currently holds the longest unbeaten streak in MMA. Khabib is someone Ritu looks up to. “He also tries to win matches by takedowns. So I watch his fights a lot,” she says. She however feels that apart from learning new skills, her training is not too different from what she did during her brief but medal-laden career in amateur wrestling. “You need power, speed and endurance in wrestling and MMA. The skills required are different. In wrestling skills like punching and striking are not allowed which is used in MMA,” she said.