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On her return to the cage after eight months, "The Indian Tigress" Ritu Phogat picked up a thoroughly dominant and equally spectacular win against Cambodian opponent Nou Srey Pov in an atomweight encounter at ONE: Inside the Matrix. With this win, Ritu Phogat improved her record to 3-0, extending her undefeated streak in MMA.
Ritu Phogat is coming for everyone in the ONE Championship atomweight division and as she promised, she won't stop until she has the title strapped around her waist. After her performance tonight, the promotion's atomweight division must now sit up and take notice of the former Commonwealth Games Gold medalist in freestyle wrestling as a legitimate title contender.
Ritu Phogat is also referred to as "The Female Khabib Nurmagomedov" by her Indian fans and she definitely lived up to her name, taking her opponent down from the get-go, managing to quickly achieve top position, and from there, Phogat just kept posturing up and laying some nasty ground and pound on her Cambodian counterpart who was saved by the bell at the end of an absolutely one-sided 1st round.
In the second round, more of the same followed as Phogat backed her opponent up against the cage and then shot for the single leg, taking her down and achieving top-mount once again. This time, however, the bell couldn't come to Srey Pov's aid as Ritu Phogat relentlessly beat her up with a combination of vicious strikes and elbows to the face until the referee had seen enough and stepped in.
In terms of styles, this was supposed to be a difficult matchup for Ritu Phogat since her opponent is extensively trained in Kickboxing and Muay Thai but that didn't seem to trouble the Indian fighter one bit as she played to her strengths, keeping the fight on the ground and controlling the fight all the way from start to finish.
Ritu Phogat won a $100 bet with her coach
After her fight, I had the opportunity to ask a few questions to the Evolve MMA trainee who revealed that her coach had bet her $100 if she managed to win the fight by following the gameplan and she's happy that she won the bet and was able to pick her opponent apart by following what she was taught by her coaches at the Singapore gym.
Ritu Phogat also said that she's looking forward to working with the legendary Georges St-Pierre on this season of ONE Championship's The Apprentice. Phogat said that she is excited about meeting the former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion and wants to take tips from him to improve her game.
