Looks can be deceiving

Looks can be deceiving

Doe-eyed and petite, Rika Ishige doesn't fit the image of a brawling marauder. But here's a tip: don't get on her bad side

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Looks can be deceiving
Rika trains with her boyfriend Shannon Wiratchai.

If you were to guess what Rika Ishige does for a living, there's a 100% chance that you'll get it wrong. With her petite frame, sparkling doe-eyes and a cheeky smile that's able to light up a whole room, the half-Thai, half-Japanese 28-year-old could actually beat you to a pulp.

Calling herself "Tinydoll" but given the name "The Smiling Assassin" among her peers, Ishige is one of Southeast Asia's fastest rising female mixed martial artists (MMA) -- catapulting to fame last March after her professional debut fight in ONE Championship: Warrior Kingdom against Malaysia's Audreylaura Boniface.

Rika Ishige enters the ONE Championship arena dressed as the Pink Power Ranger.

Audiences watched in shock and wonder as the atom-weight warrior was first punched then taken down by her rival, then recovered in the nick of time by straddling Boniface, elbowing and punching her face until the referee called a technical knockout.

Last month, Ishige won another ONE Championship match against Filipino rival Rome Trinidad. Putting Trinidad into a ruthless rear-naked choke and causing her to tap out, the win makes her current record three wins and one loss. She's rising fast, so it's hard to believe that Ishige started training only three years ago.

"During that time I didn't think of being an athlete at all," she said one Friday afternoon as she got ready for a training session at Sukhumvit's Bangkok Fight Lab. "When I was working in an office I felt that I wanted to exercise, so I went back to train in karate."

Tinydoll was never a stranger to martial arts. Bullied when she was young for being half-Thai, half-Japanese, she took up karate in order to defend herself from being ganged up at in school. As time passed, she trained less and less to focus on her studies.

Known as the 'Smiling Assassin', Rika strikes a pose for the camera after her win.

Picking up the sport years later, Ishige itched to learn more, seeking out Thai MMA fighter Shannon Wiratchai -- now her boyfriend -- to train her.

"It was extremely hard," she said. "Because MMA isn't just one type of fighting. It's taking all the forms of fighting -- in terms of the most efficient ones -- to come together. I have to train in many forms and it's something I wasn't used to. From karate, which was only standing and kicking, I had to do wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu which was very hard."

After training for two years, Ishige needed to prove to herself of how much she achieved, and for the first time in her life, she registered to compete, facing a vicious backlash from many people she knew.

"People told me that I wouldn't be able to do it. That I'm a woman who looks weak and fragile. That time I was extremely thin and small, so they told me it's not suitable for me. I was like, no, I can do it. And the comments are still here today. They tell me it's not suitable, you should do something else.

"I don't think these comments get me down," she continued. "But they're motivators for me to show them that it's doable. You can't judge a person like that -- I can do better than that and I will show you."

Winning the amateur competitions with ease, Ishige caught the eye of the ONE Championship sports media company who were looking for female MMA fighters to compete in their programmes. Now, she fights as a full-fledged professional athlete, sponsored by gyms like Bangkok Fight Lab, Buakaw's Bunchamek Gym, BASE Bangkok, and Phuket's Tiger Muay Thai Gym.

Rika at Bangkok Fight Lab. photos: Pornprom Satrabhaya

"I'm just a normal woman who loves the sport," she said when asked about what makes her different in the professional fighting scene. "My experience is probably not as high as female muay Thai fighters who have trained since they were seven years old, but I do have to try harder as well to be equal to them. When I'm in the cage, I don't purely focus on having to fight, kill and win. It's character plus skill. There has to be character, like being an entertainer who doesn't only just fight. It's fun for me to fight, so I look happy and not stressed -- so people might root for me because of that."

With her signature smile always flashing inside the cage, Ishige's persona outside the cage also contributes to her public backing. Because MMA fighters are usually known to be outspoken, egotistical and erratic, Ishige's soft-spoken and unassuming nature is a fresh breath of air within the industry. And with four professional competitions under her belt, Ishige isn't even looking to be champion just yet.

"Many fighters would probably say that they want to be the champion," she said. "Do I want to be a champion? Of course, everyone wants to be number one. But in this short time period, I want people to understand MMA. I want to help develop and promote the sport. Anyone interested can come talk to me. If you do karate or muay Thai and you want to develop your skills, I'm ready to help promote that if I can.

"There are people on the internet who would say 'they're wrestling like pigs!'," she said with a hint of frustration. "When they don't understand the sport, they'll compare it to our national sport which is muay Thai. But people have to understand and respect other forms of martial arts as well. There's not only stand-up fighting in this world like taekwondo and muay Thai. In the Western world there's wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu which has been practised for a long time. MMA is not muay Thai. I want people to open up their hearts and accept the sport. Now, people are starting to accept it more and more compared to two to three years ago."

"I love the art of fighting," she added. "The more I train in different martial arts, the more I think that this is me, and in the end, it's become a serious career. I want to thank myself that I've chosen this path. I'm going to continue doing it until I'm not able to anymore."

Rika training at Bangkok Fight Lab.


Follow Tinydoll's progress and fights at www.onefc.com facebook.com/RikaTinyDoll/

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