Here’s how the top-ranked women’s strawweight contender battled a rare skin condition and Covid-19 interruptions to win against Meng Bo at the One Championship: Heavy Hitters competition on January 14
In October 2020, Tiffany Teo, one of the world’s best female mixed martial artist (MMA) fighters, suffered a devastating loss to China’s Xiong Jing Nan. Shortly after, the fighter was then diagnosed with an incredibly rare skin condition which pulled her into one of the darkest periods of her life.
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But on January 14, Teo dominated and emerged as the champion against China’s Meng Bo during 'One: Heavy Hitters', an event organised by sports organisation One Championship and was held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“It was a very close fight with Xiong Jing Nan but I didn’t even have time to be disappointed about the loss because shortly after, I was diagnosed with Anhidrosis, a really rare skin condition that prevents me from being able to sweat,” Teo told Tatler over a Zoom interview. The fighter had carved out just a short time to chat in between training sessions for last night's event.
Teo, who is also known as “No Chill” in the cage, took Meng down in the second round with a rear naked choke in what was her first fight in over a year. However, the journey to this victory was far from an easy one.
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“Before I got officially diagnosed, I was overheating and dehydrated all the time but no one could figure out what was wrong. I was even hospitalised at one point because my pee had turned brown,” Teo said.
She continued by saying that one day, she stumbled across an article that described the exact symptoms she had and eventually led to her diagnosis in January 2021.
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“I got an appointment at the National Skin Centre and finally found a doctor who was able to help me. [My condition] was so rare that it was [tough] to find treatment,” she said.
During this time, Teo’s training took a backseat and she found herself having to take more breaks and be very careful.
“I used to pour water over myself in the middle of training sessions to keep my body from overheating and my soaked shirt would dry so quickly because my body temperature was just so high,” Tiffany said with a laugh.