By Rohit Mitra

New Delhi, Nov 10 (UNI) 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."