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Mathew Scott

There’s a pause at the end of the phone line when Tiffany Teo is asked to cast her mind back two years to her challenge for the ONE Championship strawweight crown.
When she gathers her thoughts, the 30-year-old's response is a simple one.
“I just wasn’t a fighter in there,” she says.
On that night in January 2018, Singapore’s “No Chill” came up against China’s Xiong “The Panda” Jingnan and she pretty much lost the plot once the cage door was slammed shut and the two were left to their own devices.


The fight went the way of the Chinese fighter via TKO after she’d laid down a sustained pounding of Teo in the fourth round but throughout the bout, the Singaporean had looked out of sorts.
Today Teo (9-1) admits the occasion got to her, and she had allowed Xiong (14-2) to dictate terms.
ONE Championship releases first official rankings
“Two years back I was really raw as a fighter,” explains Teo. “I didn’t understand the game as well as I do now. I have more fight IQ now and I’m more emotionally mature.
“I remember getting into the cage the first time against Jingnan and the nerves got to me. The fight plan went out the window. The emotional side got to me. Today I am a very different fighter and a completely different person.”
That much was on show in Teo’s last outing, a fourth-round TKO over Japan’s Ayaka Miura (10-3, one no contest) that now has the Singaporean top-ranked among the strawweights and lined up for a rematch with Xiong, once restrictions from the coronavirus threat are cleared and ONE can safely resume its events schedule.

The previous version of Teo might have lost the plot again when Miura put her familiar fight plan into action in the first, getting Teo to the canvas and working the angles towards a submission. But this time around we witnessed Teo 2.0 as she recalibrated the situation, held on to that first bell, and then worked the angles as she took the fight up to her Japanese opponent, before raining the blows down as time ticked away.
“It was pretty much the worse-case scenario,” says Teo of that first round. “That’s what she’s good at. She’s a one-trick pony and I knew that from all her fights. I knew she would be trying to take me down and getting me to submit me from as very specific position using a hip lock. We’d prepared the whole camp for that, how to escape, how to avoid getting in that position. But she got me.
“My distance management was off, she closed the distance and took me down. But the training was there, I’d worked on those moves with far bigger guys. I knew if I could hold that off I could turn the fight around.”

There was a redemption, of sorts, for Teo as referee Olivier Coste waived the bout to a close, considering the state she found herself in following that first fight with Xiong. Teo had been on the receiving end, with severe damage to an ear and a busted up face that seemed to take an age to heal.
The ear then became infected, resulting in four operations and a stint in hospital where Teo began to question what – exactly – she was doing with her life.
“I was questioning myself. Is this really what I want to do? It was a period of self doubt. But I figured things out. After a few months it just dawned on me again. This is the life I have always really wanted.”

Teo turned to yoga – which she now teaches to corporate groups – and discovered a new-found strength and clarity in its moment of stillness. A return bout – and win – against BJJ ace Michelle Nicolini (6-2), was followed by another stretch on the sidelines that included work on a slight retina tear.
Then came Miura, and next comes Xiong and an opportunity for Teo to erase the errors of those previous ways. ONE has previously announced that the Xiong rematch is now on the cards, and Teo is sitting at home and, like everyone, waiting for the current crisis to lift.
She’s also been going over the tapes, and looking for gaps in The Panda’s game.
“She’s a really tough girl for sure,” says Teo. “She stays calm. You could see in her [strawweight] title fight against Angela [Lee] got her in a really tight arm bar and she just takes it. I might have tapped. It was nasty to watch. She’s a hard striker. So the key with her is to find a way to bring it to the ground. Work on those takedowns. It would be interesting to stand with her and see how hard I am. But the takedown is always there for me, and once we’re in there together I’ll go for the path of least resistance.”


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ONE Championship

ONE Championship: Tiffany Teo 2.0 targets Xiong Jingnan redemption and the strawweight title

Tiffany Teo ahead of her fight against vs Ayaka Miura. Photos: ONE Championship

Tiffany Teo stands and trades with Ayaka Miura in the middle of the ONE Circle.

Tiffany Teo's arm is raised by referee Olivier Coste.

Tiffany Teo punches Ayaka Miura on the ground.

Sport

Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts


Singapore’s ‘No Chill’ admits she questioned what she was doing with her life after 2018 loss to ‘The Panda’ resulted in four operations on infected ear
‘Today I am a very different person and a completely different fighter,’ says Teo, who is certain she’s on the right path again



Tiffany Teo questioned what she was doing with her life after 2018 loss to Xiong Jingnan resulted in four operations on infected ear, but now ‘No Chill’ is certain she’s on the right path again.


Martial arts