SINGAPORE, 25 FEBRUARY 2019: Evolve Mixed Martial Arts, Asia’s #1 martial arts organisation as ranked by CNN, Yahoo Sports and Fox Sports, today announced that wrestling champion and Indian superstar Ritu Phogat has joined the Evolve Fight Team, Asia’s most decorated professional fight team.
Phogat is a Commonwealth Wrestling Championships gold medallist, U23 Wrestling World Championships silver medallist, Asian Wrestling Championships bronze medallist and multiple Indian national wrestling champion.
She brings her world-class wrestling ability to the Evolve Fight Team, which boasts a roster of big names such as UFC Superstar Rafael Dos Anjos, ONE Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee, 12x UFC World Champion Demetrious Johnson, MMA Legend Shinya Aoki, BJJ World Champion Garry Tonon, Muay Thai World Champion Nong-O Gaiyanghadao, Muay Thai World Champion Sam-A Gaiyanghadao, Kickboxing World Champion Giorgio Petrosyan and Kickboxing Superstar Tenshin Nasukawa, among many others.
Originally from Haryana, India, Phogat is one of India’s top sporting superstars and one of the best wrestlers in the world, having finished 5th at the 2018 Wrestling World Championships despite only being 24 years old.
Wrestling since the age of eight, she has had over 300 wrestling matches and competed in the world’s top wrestling competitions, such as the Wrestling World Championships, Commonwealth Wrestling Championships, Asian Wrestling Championships, Yasar Dogu International and the Pro Wrestling League.
In 2016, she was the most expensive female wrestler at the Pro Wrestling League auction. She is a member of the famous Phogat family, whose story was immortalised in the blockbuster film Dangal, India’s highest grossing film of all time. Her sisters Geeta, Babita and Sangeeta and cousin Vinesh Phogat are also wrestling champions.
“We are very excited to have Ritu join the Evolve Fight Team. She is one of the world’s best wrestlers and we believe that she will be able to transition to mixed martial arts seamlessly. The experience she brings, having competed at the world’s highest levels of wrestling, will help her adapt to mixed martial arts quickly. Under the guidance of our World Champions, she will be able to learn the various martial arts efficiently, and we feel she has the potential to become a world champion in the future,” said Eduardo Pamplona, the Head Coach of the Evolve Fight Team.
Said Ritu: “I am excited to have moved to Singapore to begin my new journey in mixed martial arts as a member of the Evolve Fight Team. I look forward to the challenge of learning the various martial arts and broadening my skill set as a mixed martial artist. I believe Evolve MMA is the perfect place for me to make the transition into mixed martial arts and I am excited to learn from all the World Champions here in Singapore. I have a dream of becoming India’s first ever World Champion in mixed martial arts and can’t wait to represent India on the global stage and make my nation proud.”
Evolve MMA is Asia’s #1 martial arts academy and has the largest collection of World Champions on the planet. With the largest class schedules in Asia, containing over 700 classes a week, Evolve MMA has a comprehensive selection of martial arts classes, ranging from Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Mixed Martial Arts, Boxing, Kickboxing, Wrestling, and many more.
Evolve MMA’s mission is to unleash greatness in everyone through authentic martial arts under World Champions. Evolve MMA believes that martial arts is about the journey of continuous self-improvement of the mind, body, and soul and one of the greatest platforms to unleash human potential.
