Aggression is Ritu Phogat’s signature in the wrestling ring. This will come in handy now that she has signed up with One Championship, the Singapore-based mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion. While the news of her shifting base to the island city-state , to train at Evolve MMA, has upset many — Wrestling Federation of India assistant secretary Vinod Tomar told a national newspaper “we’ve invested so much in Ritu; it is a big loss for us”— the 24-year-old is excited. “I’ve been wrestling since my childhood and it will always remain my first love. But I wanted to do something different and I found MMA very interesting,” says Ritu, who scored gold at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship.
Mastering her moves
MMA was a natural choice for the daughter of wrestler Mahavir Phogat (whose inspirational story was the subject of the 2016 Bollywood blockbuster, Dangal). She has been following the sport closely for some time, impressed with its multi-skill nature and the inspiring stories of the fighters, many of whom come from humble backgrounds. “As a kid, I used to wonder who’d win if a wrestler fought a karate player, or a kickboxer fought a jiu-jitsu player. Now we can actually see that in MMA,” she says.
And while she may have foregone the opportunity to represent India at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — MMA is not an Olympic sport, and it was recently denied a two-year provisional term that would have set it on the path towards becoming one — Ritu hopes to become India’s first female MMA world champion.
Currently training at Evolve MMA, the martial arts outfit that has produced several world champions, including Shinya Aoki and UFC’s Rafael Dos Anjos, she is concentrating on kickboxing before moving on to other forms, including jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai.
Getting combat ready
Alan Fernandes, India’s national MMA coach, believes her background in wrestling will help. “There are three core aspects to the fighting,” he explains — ‘striking’ (trading blows), ‘clinch game’ (where fighters close in and try to take the other down) and ‘ground fight’ (where the fight is taken to the floor). Wrestling comes into play in the last two. Ritu agrees. “I feel wrestlers learn the trade of MMA pretty quickly, as there is a lot of grappling and on-the-floor moves involved.”
Coping with the intensity, relentlessness and brutality of the full-contact combat sport, however, will be challenging, but Ritu says all she needs “is the right training”. As her first bout in the cage is still a few months away, she is focussing on upgrading her skills. “My aim is to be ready to hit the octagon as soon as possible and represent my country,” she concludes.