Rika “Tinydoll” Ishige is Thailand’s first female MMA fighter. Born in 1989, the Thai-Japanese was physically bullied for being only half Thai. When teachers failed to intervene, she signed herself up for martial arts for self-defense skills. Thus, at nine years old, she started taking up Aikido, Karate and Taekwondo. This fortified her physically and mentally. After experimenting with several disciplines, she decided to turn professional in 2017, winning several matches under the ONE Championship umbrella. Shaking off the pressure from her loss against Angelie Sabanal in March 2018, she won her most recent match in October 2018 against two-time Myanmar national boxing champion Bozhena “To To” Antoniyar. Rika vows to become Thailand’s first MMA World Champion in ONE Championship. Additionally, she aims to change the perception of MMA as a violent and crass sport; instead, she wants to promote it as an athletic form of self-protection. Not only does she hope to increase support for Thai athletes, she also hopes to open her own gym where she can teach women self-defense techniques (something she has already done at SATI Foundation).