Singapore MMA fighter Tiffany Teo wins historic Asian Games gold

TOKYO: More than just a gold medal, the 265g piece of metal which mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Tiffany Teo had fought her heart out for represented the culmination of a journey.

"I feel like this entire journey kind of led up to this moment. It's not just the past couple of months of fight camp, it (was) the hours people didn't see when I started, when I was a total beginner," she told reporters.

"Coming into this Asian Games, I felt like I deserved to be here and I definitely deserved the gold medal."

On Tuesday (Sep 22), Teo beat Uzbekistan's Khilola Sobirova in the women's traditional 60kg final at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center to clinch Singapore’s first gold of the 20th Asian Games. After both athletes were adjudged to have won one round each, the Singaporean took victory in an extra overtime round.

"I was so overwhelmed when I won the fight," she said. "I just started crying; it was just tears of joy."

Teo had competed against Sobirova at the Asian Mixed Martial Arts Championship in May, falling to her in the final.

"In retrospect, I'm glad that I lost to her ... I feel like with losses it makes you reflect more. When you win, you reflect a little bit because it doesn't hurt that much," she said.

Earlier in the Games, the 36-year-old Singaporean beat Iran's Arezou Salimighalehtaki and followed that up with a victory over India's Suchika Tariyal on Monday, where Teo won after a tiebreaker based on the athletes' weights was applied.

"We realised that in retrospect, I was hesitating a lot in yesterday's fight and honestly, I was pretty disappointed with my performance yesterday," said Teo. 

"I felt like I could have dominated a lot more and a big part was my fault. My cornerman gave me the game plan, and I was overly