The world will finally get to see Tiffany Teo 2.0 when the Singaporean tries to wrest the ONE Championship strawweight crown from Xiong Jingnan as part of the Inside the Matrix card on Friday night. What – exactly – constitutes the upgrade for 30-year-old “No Chill” remains a mystery and Teo (9-1) said she had made sure that the Chinese champion (14-2) for one won’t know what to expect. “I feel like I am a wild card for her,” said Teo. “The last two fights I fought grapplers. She’ll be the first striker I’ve been up against since I lost to her, so she just doesn’t know what I have changed, how I am going to fight, how I can now match up against a striker. She won’t know what to expect.” The first time the pair met – on the Kings of Courage card in January, 2018 – Teo had been on a 7-0 tear but found “The Panda” a far different proposition to her previous opponents. The former boxing stand-out gave Teo a thorough working over before the fight was called a TKO at 2:17 of the fourth. There’s only been two fights since for Teo – over the ensuing two and a half years – but the work she has been putting in was showcased when she was too much for veteran Brazilian Michelle Nicolini (6-2) over three rounds, and when she then overpowered Japanese star Ayaka Miura (10-3, one no contest) as the third drew to a close. “After the loss I was forced to focus on my game, on what I was doing and on where I wanted the sport to take me,” said Teo. “I looked at my weaknesses. The past two years have given me the time to go over these loopholes.” Last time out the feeling was the penny really dropped for the Singapore Top Team fighter. Against the 30-year-old Miura – a veteran of both the Pancrase and the Deep Jewels promotions – Teo was able to fend off takedowns and consistently land heavy blows when on her feet. Xiong was in the crowd that night and admits she was impressed. “I felt then I was a different fighter against Miura,” said Teo. “And I am a very different fighter to the one I was in 2018 when I first faced Jingnan. Back then I was very raw for an MMA fighter. I felt like I was still very new to the game. I was still trying to understand different aspects and trying to piece everything together.” Over the months since the Miura bout, Teo focused her mind and her training on the rematch with Xiong, knowing it was on the cards the moment her hand was raised. There’s been no other work – as Singapore shut down to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic – so Teo’s day job as a yoga instructor has been put on hold. But the positives have been extra time to get over any niggles her body was feeling. ONE: Aung La says he’ll ‘smash Reinier de Ridder’s face’ “I had no work for a couple of months,” said Teo. “Everything was put on pause. So I have just focused on training, and on myself. But after that last fight in February it was pretty much confirmed that the next fight would be for the title. So once the pandemic started I knew the fight was coming it was just a question of when. “I used the time to focus on my strength and I feel I’m a lot stronger now. I’ve been watching a lot of fight analysis and discussion of fight tactics online to make up for what I can’t do. It was the only fight that made sense so I knew it would happen. The good thing is I could focus my mind on this fight, no matter what else was happening around me.” Staring back at Teo from across the cage will be a fighter who since 2018 has made the ONE strawweight division her own, thanks to three title defences including one that brought to an end the unbeaten run of atomweight queen Angela “Unstoppable” Lee (10-2). Teo said she knows exactly what’s ahead and that confidence will have her in a position of power once the cage door shuts. “She’s had a couple of fights after me. She fought two other girls in strawweight and she fought Angela [Lee] twice. So you can pretty much see her style and know what to expect,” said Teo. “Her style is aggressive, dominant, she pushes the pace and comes forward. That’s how she’s comfortable. That’s how she likes to fight. Most girls who fight her try to bring it down to the ground and to grapple her. She’ll probably think I have the same game plan but she will find out the truth on Friday.”