ONE Championship: Stamp Fairtex responds to Conor McGregor supporting Ritu Phogat, sends ‘Indian Tigress’ a warning
- UFC icon gave his backing to ‘The Indian Tigress’ for December 3’s ONE atomweight grand prix final
- ‘She’s got no punches. She’s got nothing except her wrestling,’ insists Stamp – ‘I’m not scared of her’
But that’s completely fine with Stamp.
“I feel glad for her, it’s a good thing,” the 24-year-old Thai told the Post. “If I were Ritu, I would feel like, ‘Oh, this is the biggest MMA superstar in the world, Conor McGregor, he goes on Twitter and supports me’. I don’t feel anything bad about it on my side, I would say it’s nice for her.”
The 27-year-old Phogat (7-1) will also have an army of Indian fans supporting her, but Stamp will have her own sizeable contingent back home in Thailand cheering her on – and motivating her to make history.
“I need to win this fight, I want to build history,” she said. “I want to win this grand prix, I want that belt on my shoulder. I want to be the first female in Thailand and in ONE Championship who is a former kickboxing and Muay Thai champion and then becomes an MMA champion as well.”
Standing in Stamp’s way in Singapore will be the significant wrestling prowess of “The Indian Tigress”, who has dominated almost every opponent she has faced on the ground since switching to mixed martial arts in 2019.
“I see her strength is only her wrestling, but the rest she has got nothing at all,” Stamp said. “She’s got no punches, she has no kicking, she cannot do anything long range like what I have. So I will say she’s got nothing except her wrestling skills.
“I was thinking I’ve got a chance to knock her out, however, it’s going to depend on the game plan. But it might be that I’m the first person who knocks Ritu out with my skills.”
Those skills have been honed at the famed Fairtex gym in Bangkok, where Stamp is now fully focused on her burgeoning MMA career, having juggled things around before while defending her ONE atomweight Muay Thai and kickboxing belts.
Losing both titles over a fraught 12 months from February 2020 to February 2021 – when she also lost her first MMA fight – has proven to be something of a blessing in disguise, with Stamp looking more focused and better than ever in this eight-woman tournament.
“Well, to be honest, I felt nothing at all after I heard what she said in her interview. I feel actually she’s the one who needs to be scared of me, because I know what I’ve got,” Stamp said. “I’ve got my striking and my knee is my weapon, so she needs to be careful.
“I’m not scared of her. I already know what she is good at. I know Ritu is going to try to take me down, so this is how I need to prepare myself.”
