Tiffany Teo is gearing up for her atomweight debut against Ritu Phogat at ONE 161 tonight. The Singaporean has forged an impressive resume at strawweight where she managed to beat every opponent not named Xiong Jing Nan.
She is now in search of fresh challenges as she drops down a division to fight Phogat. But Teo is not short of ambition and plans to call out the current atomweight champion if she wins,
She described herself as a ‘complete MMA fighter’ in an exclusive interview with AsianMMA.com and revealed she would be calling out Lee if she emerges victorious from tonight’s contest.
“100% I’m calling her out. It’s the main reason why I’m dropping down to atomweight. It’s interesting that she’s fighting for the belt at strawweight because honestly it doesn’t really make any sense to me. She got her arse kicked in strawweight. She lost to Michelle Nicolini, she lost to Panda. I don’t even know if she’s ranked in the strawweight division and now she comes back and she’s fighting for the belt. I’m sure Panda has the exact (same) sentiments as me.”
Two divisions
Although Teo is unranked at atomweight she is the number one contender in the strawweight division. If Lee beats Xiong Jing Nan on Saturday she would be happy to return there and challenge the newly crowned champion,
“At the same time I guess it’s good that she’s fighting at strawweight so I’ve got two bases covered. I’m an atomweight now and I’m the top contender at strawweight and if I win this fight it only makes sense for it to happen.”
Lee is currently 1-1 in her trilogy with Xiong with both women boasting a stoppage victory over the other. Heading into Saturday’s figh Teo believes that the Chinese star will come out on top against Lee,
“Panda has evolved more as an MMA fighter over the years and not just that but the type of fighters that she’s been fighting. We’ve seen her fighting Michelle, Ayaka and they’re all grappling specialists which is kind of more of what Angela is. I feel like Xiong has more experience in that sense. She’s prepared for what’s going to come she’s sharpened her takedown defense. Angela won her last fight against Stamp but we see a huge hole in her game which is the body shot. If I was in Xiong’s camp – it’s a no brainer that it’s something I would definitely capitalize on,” she said.
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Quite surprised
Teo is coming off an impressive submission victory against Meng Bo in her last fight. She subsequently decided to call out Ritu Phogat and was surprised to discover the atomweight Grand Prix finalist was unranked,
“I was quite surprised because when I first called her out I remember seeing her in the top five rankings. Which is also one of the main reasons I called her out but I called her out and she accepted the challenge and I’m still down for that,” said Teo.
If Teo does defeat Phogat tonight there will only be one name on her lips. The Singaporean plans to beat the Indian and then call out the current atomweight queen.
