Vridhi Kumari Singhvi remembers the first time she got punched in the face. It was back in 2019, in her first sparring session shortly after she started her martial arts career. The punch hurt, of course, but that wasn't the only thing Singhvi was worried about. She hadn't told her father she was training... and wasn't planning to. Her make-up kit came to the rescue. "When I got home, I quickly put some concealer to hide the bruise," she says. Later that night, with pigment on her welt and her body feeling the punch, she wondered if this was something she really wanted to pursue.
It's perhaps a good thing that Singhvi persisted. On January 26, she became the first Indian woman mixed martial arts fighter to win a bout at the amateur world championships (IMMAF) - the highest platform for the sport outside professional ranks. In Abu Dhabi, the 22-year-old from Chennai beat former world medalist Nurzhamal Sadykova of Kazakhstan to eventually return with a bronze medal in the atomweight (47kg) category. Singhvi was the only fighter from the Indian contingent to win a medal.
"Mixed martial arts is still in its infancy in India. There's a belief that an Indian fighter in your bracket is an easy bout. After Vridhi won her medal, the most heartening thing was that so many fighters and coaches came to congratulate her. It's a result that changed a lot of perceptions among them," says Ajit Sigamani, who's coached Singhvi.
Sigamani's own perceptions have changed. When Singhvi first came to the Combat Kinetics Academy in Nungambakkam, he didn't think very highly of her. The five-foot-nothing girl didn't have the sort of background Sigamani, one of the pioneers of Mixed Martial Arts in South India, recognised in elite fighters. "Fighting is hard. Normally fighters come from the most underprivileged sections of society. That struggle gives them the drive to push themselves. Our academy gets people from well-off families< but at the most they come for fitness. Very few have that stomach to fight," he says.
Singhvi didn't check any of those boxes. She was the daughter of a successful businessman from a family of Marwari descent, she was a student of Sociology at Stella Maris College and had no prior martial arts training. "One of my fighters told me there's this small girl with long hair interested in fighting. Some real Hindi kari (Some Hindi speaking person). She was this affluent North Indian who came in a chauffeur driven car. I honestly thought maybe she's come here to rebel a bit before she goes back home," he says. But Singhvi's decision to train wasn't a spur of the moment one. "As a kid I'd seen Mary Kom (the movie on Olympic bronze medalist MC Mary Kom) and the next day, I remember telling my parents, I'm going to be a boxer too. At that time, people laughed or were horrified. Good Marwari girls don't learn boxing. They weren't aware of weight classes so they told me I was too small and I convinced myself that I was probably being stupid. But the thought never left my mind. Once I got into college though I decided to do it," she says.
Another push came from her studies itself. "I was studying sociology and criminology. And the more I read about it, the more I felt I needed it. I'd be terrified. What if something happens to me? What if I was harassed on the street? I was living in fear and I felt I needed to change that," she says.
Having only told her mother, Singhvi started to train and to the surprise of Sigamani, who'd expected her to dip her feet and then retreat, didn't skip a class. When she was punched in her first sparring session, she says she hit back even harder. It was in her first competition, a state level boxing tournament, that she felt she knew this was what she had to do. "The preparation for that competition, the joy I felt in the ring, was like nothing else I've experienced," she says.
Not long after that she asked Sigamani if she could train to be a fighter full time. While he agreed, others had doubts whether someone they considered a sheltered girl would survive in the until-then brusque, all-male gym. "I get the reason they felt that way. Later on, one of the guys would tell me that they predicted I'd last a week at most. I didn't ask for any favours. I earned their respect the hard way. No one went easy on me. It was really tough and at times I'd go home and cry because I was so beat up. But this was something I really wanted to do. In the end I think it ended up speeding up my growth as a fighter," she says.
Indeed, Sigamani believes her progress has been remarkable. "She's someone who had no background in martial arts. But she almost lived in the gym for two years. It was almost like a crash course for her," he says.
Last February she took part in her first national championships in Lucknow, choking out two opponents and taking a decision on another two to win gold. In September she took part in her second nationals (the earlier one was the one for 2020 which had originally been postponed because of COVID) and won gold there as well-qualifying for the World Championships. As her career blossomed, her family too slowly came on board, even though there were murmurs when she cut her hair to something that was more manageable for cage-fighting. "Initially they thought maybe it was a phase and hoped I'd grow out of it. But later on, they made their peace with it," she says. Her teammates at Combat Kinetic too warmed to her. "Vridhi brings a different vibe to the gym. There are about 20 alpha male type fighters. Perpetually grumpy guys. She's instantly calms the aggression in the place. If someone's having a bad day, she'll instantly go and cheer them up," says Sigamani.
In the cage though, Sigamani says she's as tough as nails. That's a quality that was tested in Abu Dhabi. In her first bout, Singhvi was up against Nurzhamal Sadykova, an experienced fighter with a strawweight bronze at the 2018 worlds, silver at the 2019 Asian championships and bronze at the 2021 European championships. Despite being mounted in the final minute of the first round and giving up her back in the last thirty seconds, Singhvi managed to stay in the fight and eventually managed to pull off a split decision victory. Even harder was her semi-final against Ireland's Nadine Bisette - the eventual gold medalist. Although Singhvi found it hard to stay on her feet, she showed plenty of grit to fight off a rear naked choke late in the first round and even managed to land some counter right punches of her own. Despite her efforts though, Bisette secured another takedown late in the fight and although Singhvi fought off the choke submission, the referee stopped the bout with five seconds to go.
Singhvi says her ultimate goal is to fight in the professional ranks, like Ritu Phogat, and even defeats such as the one to Bisette will help prepare her for that. "Even in her loss, she was always thinking about what she needed to do. She didn't panic at any moment. But it also showed that while she's made huge strides in the past couple of years, there's still a very long way to go," says coach Sigamani. Singhvi agrees with this assessment as well. She admits her grappling needs plenty of work as does her takedown defense. She plans on adding more muscle as well.
But Sigamani thinks there's time for that. He's happy that Singhvi didn't mope about her defeat but was already thinking about how to improve. "She was a little apologetic that she'd lost at first but I reminded her she had still managed to create history," he says. Then Singhvi perked up and started taking selfies of her bruised face. "I was going to post them on Instagram. At that point I really felt, yeah now I really look like a fighter," she says.