HMAC Inverness 11-year-old Niamh Ross returns from 'incredible' trip to ONE Championship in Singapore
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A young girl from North Kessock recently returned from the journey of a lifetime thanks to her exploits in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Niamh Ross (11) trains in Inverness under gym owner Ross Houston for at least 18 hours-a-week, and already has a string of successes to her name as Scottish Kids Girls’ League winner and Elite BJJ World Champion.
After documenting her successes on social media, Niamh caught the eye of Chatri Sityodtong – the chief executive officer of one of the biggest mixed martial arts and media companies in the world, ONE Championship, and host of Asia's The Apprentice.
Striking up an unlikely friendship, Sityodtong invited Niamh to ONE 163 and ONE on Amazon Prime 4 last month as his personal guest, giving her full backstage access and cage-side seats to watch the shows.
The youngster also got to meet some of her heroes, including Muay Thai world champions Rodtang Jimungnon, MMA world champion Aung La N Sang and grappling world champion Danielle Kelly, who were all competing across the two events.
"That was incredible, it was so cool," Niamh said.
"Words can't describe how excited I was for that.
"It was the first time I'd been to a show. I've watched loads on TV and Instagram – everywhere you can watch, I've watched – but somehow it was even better in person.
"Actually getting to see it up close, being able to see what they were doing and how they were doing it, that was cool. You can even learn from watching.
"I'm still wrapping my head around it. It was an amazing trip and a great experience.
"My mind was blown (when I found out I was going), I was so excited – bouncing off the walls!
Not only did Niamh get to see some of the best in the world in action, she also got the chance to demonstrate her own skills.
Sityodtong arranged for the youngster to train at the Evolve MMA gym – whose instructors include over 40 world champions across several different companies including the UFC – under Professor Thales Nakassu.
Niamh had the chance to learn different variations of techniques that will come in useful for her next competitions, and made such an impression that she has been invited back to train with the gym going forward.
That will help the 11-year-old along the way to fulfilling her ambitions of competing for ONE, and maybe even becoming a champion for the company herself one day.
"I was probably most excited to meet everyone there, and to train at Evolve," Niamh explained.
"I really enjoyed getting to train with Professor Thales – I've seen him before and he's really good.
"He was showing me some no-gi grappling, some submissions and guard passing, sweeps. It really opened my mind to trying new things, because when you go to new places it's really good to try different styles.
"I do variants of moves, but most of those I hadn't really done before so it was really cool to give them a go.
"It's something that I'm really grateful and happy that I got to experience. I want to live by the ONE Championship values, and hopefully one day I can compete for ONE, that's one of my big goals.
"I want to train in different places and gain more experience, go and compete in some no-gi grappling competitions, and I want to be able to find a way to go back to Singapore as well, because that would be amazing."
