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Siddharth Singh, ranked eighth in Asia and number one in India, has recently reached a number of milestones. The 36-year-old recently added another achievement to his crown by winning a bronze medal at the recent AJP Abu Dhabi Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championships. He participated in the men’s 69kg event. In an exclusive interview with the Hindustan Times, he made the shocking announcement that he had “injured” his fingers after hitting two fingers during the match.
Despite the short announcement, the New Delhi native opened up about his preparations for the match. “So I recently competed in the AJP Abu Dhabi Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championships. Generally, events like these (international events), there are 6 to 8 weeks of training to get the athletes ready to play against some of the best fighters in the world. This Events are announced at short notice, so when I train for a game in October, the event is in early September. So I don’t have enough time to prepare for the game,” he said.
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Mentioning that his training is mostly done at his club, the Cross Street Fight Club, where he is also head coach, Siddharth opened up about a dangerous sparring session that could seriously hinder his preparations. “Our club is called Crosstrain Fight Club. Jiu-jitsu is one of many things we do. So we also do boxing, kickboxing, MMA, and I’m the head coach. So a lot of times my training isn’t a priority, it’s a student’s. I was sparring in one of our MMA training sessions and in that sparring session I ended up breaking two of my fingers and it was like two weeks away from the competition. I broke two fingers , in the nine-ball sport – jiu-jitsu grip strength, finger strength is very important because you’re constantly grabbing the collar and the grip and so on,” he revealed.
So to combat his injury, the fighter came up with an innovative way to train for the fight, and it consisted of just one tennis ball. “So I broke two fingers on my left hand and couldn’t catch anything, so training had to be individualized because I had to deal with this injury. So one of the things we did to prepare was to start training with tennis. So when I was in When training tennis. My hands and my fingers don’t grab anything, so I don’t like them getting hurt in training. So yeah, I’ve been training with tennis for the past two weeks, no grip. I just Trying to lift my finger, it’s almost like a plaster. So again in training, I’ll keep my injury from getting worse. It’s the first time I’ve injured two fingers,” he said.
During the tournament, Siddhartha came close to winning the gold medal, but lost to eventual champion Petru Toarca in the semi-finals, losing 3-4. “In the semifinals, I played against a fighter from Romania who is an excellent judo player. He has represented Romania in several international judo and jiu-jitsu championships and is a very good fighter. I played him in the semifinals and he threw two quick judo throws on me and he went 4-0 and I had 3 minutes to fight back. So with the remaining three minutes, I did my best Best effort. I tried to do a choke, which is called a ring choke, and the guy was able to defend. Somehow, I was almost able to get his back back. This is another back position where you can be sure to get points . I was almost able to get the mounts pointed again very close. In the end, it was 4-3, he got the nod, he made it to the final and then really got the gold in the final,” he said.
After losing the semifinals, the Indian fighter had to face the defending champions for bronze and won comfortably 6-1. Explaining how he won the fight, he said: “Then I have to fight for the bronze, which is against a local UAE fighter. He was the defending champion in the last fight. So yeah, I’m disappointed against him, Because I wanted to win gold for India but had to fight for bronze. I was pissed but I wanted to make sure at least we could win a medal for India so I fought hard and I was able to get some judo throws for myself and I got some Good points. I was also able to get my opponent’s back back which gave us another point and the game ended with me 6-1. That’s why I got the bronze medal. After the game I obviously had to do a medical on both fingers Nursing because they’re totally ruined, but it’s all good.”
He also competed in the Continental Pro Tournament, where he lost to UAE’s Humaid Alblooshi in the final, finishing second. Siddharth aims to continue his momentum and remain his medalist in the upcoming jiu-jitsu competition.
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