Meng Bo Using Lessons From USA Trip To Level Up MMA Game As She Targets World Title Shot
Surging women’s strawweight MMA contender Meng Bo is happy to hone her ever-evolving skill set under a variety of coaches around the world.
The Chinese knockout artist will next test her skills against Japanese submission specialist Ayaka Miura in U.S. primetime this Friday, November 3, at ONE Fight Night 16: Haggerty vs. Andrade on Prime Video.
That matchup at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok will be Meng’s chance to extend her two-fight winning streak and make her case for a World Title shot at divisional queen Xiong Jing Nan.
While she’s spent the majority of her career training at Sunkin Fight Club – arguably China’s top MMA gym – the 27-year-old has also traveled frequently, absorbing knowledge from some of the best minds around the world.
With that goal in mind, she spent the bulk of last year training at the famed Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, home to a number of the USA’s elite fighters.
Meng told onefc.com:
“I trained in Jackson Wink for eight or nine months beginning in January 2022.
“I really wanted to study at that time, to learn and watch athletes and coaches at the top level of MMA. I went there with the curiosity of learning.”
Already one of the women’s strawweight MMA division’s most feared and talented strikers, Meng saw real improvements in her wrestling and overall grappling game during her time in Albuquerque.
But beyond the technical developments, the seasoned competitor fine-tuned the mental side of fighting.
She has already implemented this new mindset in her current training and recent victories – and she plans to showcase more fruits of her labor against Miura:
“At Jackson Wink, I learned more about fight psychology because it is very important in MMA. I will also put these teachings into my coming fights. I will combine what I learned in the past with my current training.”
Given her experience at Jackson Wink and her current fight camp at Sunkin Fight Club, Meng is hoping to showcase a new variety of skills when she takes on a talented judoka this Friday.
Learning from different coaches, she says, can be a boon to a fighter’s overall game, so long as the athlete and coach vibe together:
“The benefit of going to a different gym is experiencing different coaches, and I can learn the strengths of each coach. Of course, not all coaches are suitable for me, but I can take away that which work best for me.”
Meng Bo Happy To Be Home In Familiar Training Ground
As much as she liked training at Jackson Wink, Meng Bo also understands that having a home base is important.
To that end, she feels the most comfortable at Sunkin Fight Club:
“My current gym is very good, the coach is very good, so I do not want to go to other gyms at the moment. Because going to another gym means that you have to adapt to the environment for a while, and especially adapt to the coach’s training methods.”
An added benefit of Meng’s home gym is that she trains alongside some of China’s top fighters, including reigning ONE Featherweight MMA World Champion Tang Kai.
She regularly picks Tang’s brain and believes she benefits greatly from all of her training partners in Changsha.
Meng added:
“As you all know, I am on a team with the current World Champion Tang Kai, and he gives me some suggestions about how to prepare.
“Also, we have many other excellent athletes on our team, and they will also help me to prepare for this fight, such as imitating my opponent in training.”
