“She kinda did whatever I expected” - Tiffany Teo breaks down Ritu Phogat’s ‘predictable’ game

Tiffany Teo is one of the best female fighters in ONE Championship, and her aggressive offensive style has led her to some impressive wins in the organization.

Her recent fight against Ritu Phogat saw her secure a first-round submission win in her atomweight debut at ONE 161 this past weekend at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

A quintessential mixed martial artist, Teo dominated Phogat both on the feet and on the ground, where she eventually locked in a rear-naked choke for the early win.

Teo, in an interview with ONE Championship, said she was already expecting what Phogat was going to do in their bout and this allowed her to quickly subdue the Indian grappler and go home with the submission victory.

Tiffany Teo said:

“She kinda did whatever I expected. I knew that she likes to go for the single-leg and then she likes to drive you to the cage to finish her takedown. I watched all of her fights, and that’s kind of what she did for all her fights. So I wasn’t surprised that she did that, but I was surprised that she was really trying to strike with me.”

True to what Teo predicted, Phogat did shoot for a single-leg takedown near the cage wall, but the Singaporean star stuffed that and proceeded to take a dominant position for most of the first round.

After a methodical and cautious approach, Teo ultimately found a way to secure the rear-naked choke and forced Phogat to submit with eight seconds left in the round:

“I read some interviews where she said she will try to knock me out, and she really did try to strike with me. But I think wrestling was just her comfort zone. So when she realized that she couldn’t really implement her gameplan on the standup, she went to whatever she was comfortable with.”

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Tiffany Teo names Jihin Radzuan and Stamp Fairtex as potential opponents

Tiffany Teo spent most of her career at strawweight, but her recent move to atomweight certainly shook up ONE Championship’s female roster.

Now that she’s the No.5-ranked women’s atomweight contender, Teo said that a match against either Stamp Fairtex or Jihin Radzuan is inevitable.

Following her victory against Phogat, Tiffany Teo said in her post-fight that she’s ready to go through the stacked women’s atomweight division and make her way to a potential world title shot:

“At atomweight, as it is a stacked division, I don’t even know where to begin. But I think a fight with Jihin or Stamp. Everyone always likes a Singapore versus Malaysia rivalry, right?”