Ritu Phogat

Ritu Phogat began her training when she was 8-years-old, and only a few years later, dropped out from school to concentrate on her wrestling career. The gold medalist of the Commonwealth Wrestling, Ritu Phogat comes from a famous wrestling family. Her father, Mahavir Singh Phogat, is a legendary coach who has trained several members of her family and took them to the highest levels of the sport. She won three Indian national wrestling championships before winning gold at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in Singapore. The next year, she claimed a silver medal at the prestigious U-23 World Championship in Poland & became the first Indian wrestler to do so in the process. Many expected her to represent India at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, but she surprised the world of wrestling when she announced that she is changing her approach to Mixed Martial Arts. She quickly moved to Singapore to join the world-famous Evolve MMA, where she trains with multiple world champions of Muay-Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu so that her punching and submission skills are on the highest level with her elite wrestling. Her main goals are to make her country proud with her performances on the world stage and become the first World Mixed Martial Arts Champion from India, a goal she hopes to achieve in two years.

Major Achievements -

• Ritu clinched her second consecutive title at the annual National Wrestling Championships in October 2016
• In November 2016, she won a gold medal in the 48kg category at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Singapore
• Ritu became the most expensive female wrestler at the Pro Wrestling League auction, having a 36 lakh INR contract with the Jaipur Ninja franchise in December 2016
• She claimed silver in the 48 kg category at the World Under-23 Wrestling Championships held in Bydgoszcz, Poland in November 2017. This is country's first silver in the prestigious championship.
• She concluded with 5th position at the 2018 Wrestling World Championships
• In February 2019, she signed on with the One Championship intending to make her mixed martial arts debut.
• Ritu made her mixed martial arts debut against South Korean Nam Hee Kim in a ONE MMA championship: Age of Dragons in November 2019 and won her first fight within three minutes.