Cambodia Woman Tharoth Enters Cage With Weight of Expectation

Tharoth Sam, a celebrated Cambodian mixed martial arts (MMA) star, steps into the cage at ONE: Kingdom of Khmer on Saturday with the weight of expectation from Khmer women around the Kingdom on her shoulders.

“At the beginning, my parents were not very supportive because Cambodian women aren’t supposed do anything remotely close to MMA,” Sam recalls.

“I won a lot gold medals in national and international games and, after a while, my family saw my success in the sport and figured that they can’t stop me from doing what I love to do, and so they started supporting me. Then I got into professional fighting, which I hid from my family for many years for fear of their disapproval. But soon they found out and gave me their full support.”

read more: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/18235/tharoth-enters-cage-with-weight-of-expectation/