ZERO TO HERO: Cambodia’s Nou Srey Pov

On 16 February 2019, Cambodia’s Kun Khmer & Lethwei World Champion Nou Srey Pov captured one of her biggest wins in her combat sports career at the famed IMPACT Arena in Bangkok Thailand over Thai MMA Superstar Rika Ishige in her professional Mixed Martial Arts Debut with ONE Championship: “Clash Of Legends”. The bout ended in a thrilling 3 rounds unanimous decision win to Srey Pov whose also known now as ” NSP ” after showcasing spectacular gameplanning and knocking her opponent down several times.
We take a look at this young female Martial Artist’ journey into Mixed Martial Arts even though she only went through 4 weeks of formal training against the feared grappler in Rika Ishige.
NSP holds an impressive 91-8 professional kickboxing record, was awarded the 2018 “Female Fighter Of The Year” by the World Lethwei Championships (WLC), and finally capturing a world title with the organization before making her debut in ONE Championship as a Mixed Martial Artist.

During her 4 week training camp, NSP was frustrated and found many things in training unfamiliar and foreign specifically the grappling aspect of the sport. She had broken down in tears and often questioned her own abilities, come to think of it, anyone with that amount of time frame to prepare heading into one of the biggest opportunities in life would feel the same when stumbled upon obstacles.

However, Srey Pov stated that with all the help of her team mates and coaches Hun Chan Reach & Nicholas “JJ” Lee at Cambodian Top Team, she was able to pull through, pick herself up off the ground and get right into work no matter how tough it was going to be. NSP was aware that she wasn’t a favorite pick to win the much anticipated fight against Rika Ishige but she believed that anything can be achieved as long as you work hard for it…. sure enough the results prevailed.

Ever since returning back to her home country of Cambodia, NSP received an enormous hero’s welcome home reception at the Phnom Penh International Airport and was mobbed by hundreds of fans, interviewers and media groups. She has also been offered multiple commercial, acting and sponsorship opportunities. A role model and inspiration for the women of Cambodia. She then reflected on her training camp leading up to the fight thinking to herself… “Wow, I actually did it. All the pain, sweat and tears finally paid off!”.

NSP looks to continue inspiring women around the world and people that could share the same drive and motivation as her to achieve whatever they’d like to achieve in life.

There is no confirmation of when she will return to action but we’ve been told it wouldn’t be long. There’s been even talks of ONE Championship Kickboxing & Muay Thai Atomweight Champion “Stamp Fairtex” of Thailand being a potential match up in the near future.



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