Athletes tend to hit their prime in their 30’s and think about transitioning into less physically-demanding career paths as they hit their 40’s. However, mixed martial arts star “Mighty” May Ooi of Singapore is breaking that notion.
The former Olympic swimmer is also a trained doctor, but chose to pursue her passion by starting her martial arts career at age 37.
In 2017, she made her ONE Championship promotional debut at ONE: QUEST FOR GREATNESS, defeating veteran Ann Osman with a come from behind submission victory and followed it up with another impressive victory against Vy Srey Khouch at ONE: IMMORTAL PURSUIT.
After the bout, she made her world title aspirations known.
“To compete in front of this amazing crowd, this win is for Singapore. Hopefully for an early Christmas present, I’m looking for a title shot sometime next year,” she said after the bout.
However, at the beginning of 2018, she turned her focus to once again don the national colors at the 2018 Asian Games – where several combat sports, including jiujitsu, will make its debut.
“I’m naturally a highly-motivated person, and my driving force is evolution and wanting to better myself every day,” she said.
“Some go back to school, some pick up hobbies… this is what I choose.”
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to qualify for the round of 16 after succumbing to UAE in the qualifying round of the competition.
Despite this, nobody can take away the fact that at 42-years-old, she was able to become a multiple-sport representative for Singapore, and remains undefeated in the ONE Championship cage. She has won all her cage bouts via stoppage.
She is now waiting on the sidelines for her next challenge, and will surely have her eyes on the super-bout between ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee and ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan at ONE: HEART OF THE LION on November 9 – the final event of ONE Championship in the Singapore Indoor Stadium for 2018.
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