I learnt a blend of different martial arts – not in great depth, obviously – but various moves such as kicks, blocks and punches. It was all quite fun.
A lot of people think martial arts are just fighting, but it’s character-building, too, and I want to give back.
When I learn martial arts, my master will have me try a punch for a week and he will keep saying, ‘No, you don’t have it. No, that’s not right.’ When he finally says, ‘Yes, you did it,’ it’s a wonderful moment. You worked on it. You got it.
Everything that I did to win a gold medal, I’m practically transferring it over to mixed martial arts.
My father was a big Bruce Lee fan. He’s Chinese-Hawaiian, and my mother is Chinese. He used to take us to all these really fantastical films with martial arts in them. And Bruce Lee was amazing.
I love doing action; I love doing martial arts. There’s almost something balletic about it.
I’m getting to put all my time and effort into studying my martial arts and to be the best fighter I can be.
I have watched stuff like Mixed Martial Arts and boxing, and sometimes it’s disappointing because the big fight is over like in 30 seconds or so.
I kind of did mixed martial arts as a hobby. At the time I was actually wanting to become a police officer as I was working in a hospital as a security job in Michigan. It was something I did in my off time.
There is all this controversy that women and girls are too skinny or too overweight. I say to just do martial arts and everything will be okay. You will tone up your body and find a confidence you can’t find just sitting around watching TV and hanging out with friends.
I have always had a heavy built and have been into all sorts of physical activities like weight training and martial arts.
I joined Khalsa College just opposite Don Bosco in class XI, but soon I quit studies and was sent to Bangkok by my father to learn martial arts, as that is the only place we could afford given that I would also work there to support my training.
I started training judo when I was 5 years old. I didn’t know much. My mom just took me and my brother to do some judo because we were very energetic. We did that for a couple of years. I don’t know why we stopped, but I came back to try other forms of martial arts like kung fu and karate when I was 12 and never stopped.
