Former WWP Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship winner Sangram Singh has advised aspiring professional Mixed Martial Arts(MMA) fighters to develop a strong foundation in wrestling if they are to be successful in professional martial arts.

In an exclusive interview with UNI, Singh emphasised that MMA bouts are largely about grappling. 'Striking is a negligible proportion of the bouts. They must do wrestling thoroughly for many years. Eighty per cent of MMA is wrestling, striking is just 20 per cent, fighters like Khabib (Khabib Nurmagomedov, the longest-reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship Lightweight Champion ever) had excellent wrestling background."

The 40 year old Sangram also stressed the importance of building good hand strength "I have big and strong hands, you may know all the chokes in the world, all the techniques but if you don't have the required amount of strength in your hands you will not be able to execute those techniques and get a tap out."

Singh registered professional MMA fight victory on November 4 at the Levels Fight League(LFL) in Amsterdam tapping out Tunisian Fighter Hakim Trabelsi in the Second Round.

"He is a good wrestler and a better striker than me, when he hit me, I attempted to clinch him, I tried to maintain distance and exhaust him during the first round. He escaped my hold a few times but I was able to execute the choke in the second round," Sangram said about the fight.

Singh, who is also well known as a motivational speaker and reality show star spoke about the preparations for the fight. "To prepare for the fight, I went to Thailand to learn Muay Thai. I learnt as much as possible, applying that within such a short notice would have been impossible what I concentrated was on how to evade those attacks. I believe we should stick to our strengths. Trying out too many new techniques can take you away from your strengths."

His win against Trabelsi, a seven time Tunsia national wrestling champion and a seasoned MMA professional was the second of his professional career. His first win was in his professional debut at the Gama International Fighting Championship in Tbilisi(Georgia) in 2024 where he defeated Pakistani fighter Ali Raza Nasir in under 90 seconds.

He said that he will work to develop his striking skills for future bouts. "I will work to develop my striking skills for my future bouts, my next match was scheduled for December but I postponed it so that I could train and improve my game especially kicks and punches."

He informed that he is currently in talks with a few fight promotions, including Levels Fight League, and wants to schedule his next competitive bout early next year.

"I am in talks with many promotions and will be fighting in the early months of 2026, hopefully you'll see me compete for the title"

He appeared upbeat about India's future in professional MMA

"We have the biggest viewership in football and combat sports, though we have not been able to achieve our potential in both these, the interest level is transforming into large scale training and I am confident that in 3-4 years India will be among the top 5 in combat sports."