India’s Ritu Phogat defeats Nou Srey Pov via TKO to earn 3rd ONE Championship win

In what was the first bout of the evening, Phogat and Pov battled it out in the atomweight division. In both the rounds, the Indian got the better of her rival with smooth transitions and precise strikes.

The showdown against Nou Srey Pov was considered to be the biggest test to date for Ritu in MMA considering the striking skills that her Cambodian counterpart hart. The Indian fighter successfully fended off the challenge bringing her grappling skills into play to counter Pov’s fast hands.

But what changed the bout in Phogat’s favour was the fast movement of her hands as she went for a double leg takedown in the second round and emerged victorious to remain unbeaten in her MMA career.

Phogat made her MMA and ONE Championship debut in November 2019 where she registered a first-round win. She then followed it up with a resounding decision victory in February 2020 against Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chiao Chen.
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Ritu Phogat 🇮🇳 looks DOMINANT in her return to the Circle, stopping Nou Srey Pov in Round 2! 🤸‍♀️ @PhogatRitu @XiaomiIndia #InsideTheMatrix #MiForRituPhogat #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship

How to watch ONE: INSIDE THE MATRIX 👉 https://t.co/xoYhoMn3qk pic.twitter.com/iwCbnscbHt

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) October 30, 2020

After the match, the Indian Tigress spoke at the post-match press conference and expressed satisfaction on her performance. However, she was not content with her performance and said.” There is still a long way to go and for my next match, I would like to improve on my striking and ground techniques to face the opponent.”

Commonwealth Wrestling Gold Medalist Ritu Phogat was widely expected to represent India at the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo. However, she stunned the world with her decision to compete in mixed martial arts instead.

Thereafter she made the move to Singapore to join Evolve MMA and honed her skills bu training with multiple Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champions.

Her ultimate goals is to become India’s first mixed martial arts World Champion.