ONE Championship: Bi Nguyen stuns Ritu Phogat to flip script on atomweight grand prix plans
- ‘Killer Bee’ gets hard-fought split decision to hand ‘The Indian Tigress’ her first loss in MMA
- ‘I kill people in the gym. I know where I can be, I just need to fight smart. Tonight I stayed composed,’ Nguyen says
Bi Nguyen secured a shock win over Ritu Phogat to throw a wrench in ONE Championship’s atomweight grand prix plans.
A heavy underdog heading into the fight, “Killer Bee” beat “The Indian Tigress” by split decision at the ONE: Dangal event, which was pre-recorded on April 29 and broadcast on Saturday night.
The 27-year-old Phogat (4-1) looked stunned when Nguyen’s arm was raised at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and was still bemused when Mitch Chilson interviewed her in the Circle.
“I don’t know, I thought I won,” she said. “I respect the decision and congratulations to Bi. Next time I will push more. I’ll go hard, work more and all the rest for the next match. I gave my 110 per cent, but I don’t know.”
Former national wrestling champion Phogat had been undefeated in MMA since debuting in the Asian promotion in November 2019. She was set to fight China’s Meng Bo on May 28 at ONE: Empower, in the quarter-finals of the eight-woman tournament to determine the next challenger for atomweight champ Angela Lee, who gave birth to her first child last month.
ONE commentator Chilson announced after the fight that Nguyen would replace Phogat in the grand prix, but a graphic on the broadcast at the end of the event showed the brackets for the grand prix with Meng’s opponent “to be announced”.