How Vridhi Kumari started her MMA career at Combat Kinetics in Chennai

Indian MMA fighter Vridhi Kumari recently made history by winning a bronze medal at the IMMAF World Championships. Based in Chennai, Vridhi trains out of Combat Kinetics under Coach Ajit Sigamani and took up MMA a few years back.

The MMA journey of Vridhi started at Combat Kinetics in Chennai after she joined the gym to learn boxing. 

She has been a force to reckon with ever since. The youngster wanted to learn a new sport during her college days and only knew about boxing when she stepped her foot into Combat Kinetics. The rest, as they say, is history.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Vridhi to talk about her early days in MMA and here is what the IMMAF World Championship medallist had to say.

How she landed up in Combat Kinetics

“While doing college I had a lot of free time, I had to learn some new sports and I had to utilize that time. I knew Combat Kinetics because it's very close to my college so that's the time when I joined Combat Kinetics.

I didn't know anything about MMA before coming here, I knew boxing and I came only to learn boxing, to learn some new skills so I was just like a client who joined Combat Kinetics. That's how I came to know about MMA through Combat Kinetics.

The moment I stepped into this place I see so many people with gloves and I was shocked like I did not know something like this was happening in India or Chennai. So, I was like whoa this looks cool. It was so different to watch and it was a very different experience,”

How Vridhi decided that she should start fighting

“so, I was a normal client who came to learn a new sport.  When I was practicing, I would see my seniors and my teammates training for their fights coming up or they would train for four hours or three hours.

That made me think about how are they doing it. I had always this curiosity about what was there in it and I think that kept pulling me. My coach Ajit Sigamani kept telling me that you're doing good I think and at the same time, there was a state boxing match that came up.  I took part and my coach pushed me for that. I won gold in that event which urged me further,”

The memories of her first MMA tournament

“If I recall my first MMA tournament, there were so many people together there you see so many people under one roof. Some are prepping, you'll see some people nervous, you see someone excited and there's good food available but you can't eat it because you have to go fight at the same time.

So many things were happening together and that was a great experience overall. I had four fights in total and I finished two of my fights via Rear-Naked Choke which I wasn't expecting at all so I was also happy with my performance and I need to work a lot more,”

The Support of her family, friends, and her teammates

“In the beginning, my family didn't really support me much but when I won and came back, they were also very happy. They were really happy with my achievement and now they are very supportive of me working hard. My teammates, I am nothing without them I am everything only because of my team, Ajit Sigamani Sir, Lenin Prakash, Abu Sayyed Nazzeur, all of them, and my teammates the whole team they bought me where I am today so it's only because of them I would say.

Even in college, I had no sports background so I started MMA and it got me discipline and confidence for my personal development. MMA has changed my whole life. My friends are pretty shocked because they used to see me as a lazy kid in school who would come late and would go to school, do nothing, just go chit chat have fun, and had no specific goals in life. So, they are pretty shocked and very very happy and proud of me for what I am today,”

Vridhi already has multiple MMA India national titles on her resume and has her eyes set on bringing a Gold Medal for India at the IMMAF World Championship in the future before turning professional in MMA.

What are your thoughts on the story of Vridhi Kumari? Let us know in the comments below.

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