Singapore’s mixed martial arts fighter Tiffany Teo celebrates after winning gold after the women’s traditional 60kg final at the Asian Games at Nagoya City Inae Sports Center, Japan, on Sep 22, 2026. (Photo: Singapore National Olympic Council/ Lim Weixiang)

Singapore MMA fighter Tiffany Teo wins historic Asian Games gold

This is Singapore’s first gold of the 20th Asian Games.

22 Sep 2026, 07:35 by Matthew Mohan · CNA · Join

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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.

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"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 eager to grapple and I kind of didn't follow the game plan in the first round, which led (the match) to a very close call."

This is the first Games to feature MMA in its programme.

MMA is one of six sports making their Asian Games debuts at Aichi-Nagoya 2026. The others are freestyle BMX, padel, surfing, teqball and virtual taekwondo.

Teo said that while she had been targeting the gold medal, a "bigger goal" had been to grow the sport in Singapore.

"I've been doing it for a decade and I see myself as a pioneer in the sport. I feel that it's quite sad to see that it's kind of not as popular now; I would like more people to take up this sport," she said.

Singapore MMA fighter Tiffany Teo wins historic Asian Games gold

This is Singapore’s first gold of the 20th Asian Games.

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