UFC's Shanghai return is a big hit

Sold-out arena, fanatic fan following and a growing roster of local talent, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's return to Shanghai has cemented mixed martial arts' sooner-than-expected arrival into China's sports mainstream.

Even with the promotion's only Chinese world champion Zhang Weili watching on the sidelines, the UFC's Shanghai Fight Night, a 12-bout showpiece featuring a record seven Chinese fighters, arrived to thrilling fanfare in the East China metropolis on Saturday night, delivering some brutal knockouts and ferocious takedowns that sent the packed Shanghai Indoor Stadium into frenzy.

Despite the schedule overlapping with a live concert taking place at the stadium next door, the Shanghai Fight Night sold out within a minute when tickets went on sale on July 10, according to Dana White, founder and CEO of the Las Vegas-based MMA organization.

The ticket sales revenue marked the highest single-day record of any live arena event across the country over the past five years, according to the event's co-organizer Orange Lion Sports, an Alibaba subsidiary.

Even Friday's pre-event showcase — the Road to UFC Season 4 semifinals — played to a full house at the same arena, proving MMA's fast-growing public profile in a country, where, 10 years ago, the three-letter acronym would have drawn quizzical looks.

"I am not surprised. What it says is I should do the fight at a bigger arena in China," White said of the impressive turnout during an exclusive interview with China Daily at the UFC's Shanghai Performance Institute.

"We made a major investment here in China. We've been doing what we do in cultivating talent. It's only going to get bigger in the next five years," White explained.

"Every time we go to a market and we put on a live event, it grows our sport."

As part of the buildup to the Fight Night, Orange Lion Sports has worked with UFC, the local district government and Shanghai's sports bureau to organize over 200 fan-engagement events, cultural experience activities and tourism promotions over the past three weeks, stimulating consumption in relevant businesses.

"We took advantage of the UFC's strong appeal to the growing fan base, multiplying its impact by offering more exciting events in the buildup to help grow the overall sports, culture and tourism industry as a whole," said Mu Yang, chairman and CEO of Orange Lion Sports.

The Fight Night on Saturday was the first such show held by UFC on the Chinese mainland since its event in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in 2019, and the eighth overall on Chinese soil, including four events staged in the Macao Special Administrative Region from 2012-24.

Shanghai hosted the promotion's mainland debut in 2017 and now accommodates the UFC's Asia-Pacific headquarters and its largest PI, a comprehensive multi-discipline training center which opened in June 2019, just two months before Zhang wrested the strawweight world title from Brazil's Jessica Andrade in Shenzhen.

Even with Zhang rising to instant stardom by becoming the first Chinese world champion under UFC, much of the crowd at the Shenzhen event back in 2019 seemed unfamiliar with the rules of how the bouts in the Octagon were judged.

Six years later, the majority of the 12,000 spectators on Saturday appeared sophisticated enough to enjoy and applaud, not just for each clean punch, but also chokes, sprawls, roundhouse kicks, ground-and-pounds, and all the other essential techniques of the mixed-discipline combat sport.

"What we've done in China in a short amount of time, we've been very successful. We are going to continue to grind it out here and do what are doing," said White.

"Bigger arenas, more stars, more world champions — that's what we do."

Sure, the boss of the MMA juggernaut has every reason to expect a greater success, now that it has signed 17 Chinese athletes to multi-fight contracts, built a productive talent pipeline with local clubs and regional promotions, and amassed over 16 million followers across major social media platforms.

It just needs another superstar, hopefully from the men's side, to build on the momentum, yet those hopes took a hit on Saturday night with Zhang Mingyang, China's rising light heavyweight contender, suffering an expected TKO defeat to Brazil's Johnny Walker in the main event.

After opening the bout by keeping Walker at bay with his trademark heavy shots, Zhang, who goes by Octagon moniker "Mountain Tiger", took two vicious kicks to the calf of his left leg early in the second round, collapsed right away into a ruthless ground-and-pound finish by Walker and wrapped up his homecoming party in sorrow.

Ranked 14th at light heavyweight before the bout, Zhang, who entered Saturday's fight with 12 straight wins, including nine first-round TKOs in a row, had to come to terms with the challenging nature of the sport at the highest level.

"This is something I signed up for after picking this sport as my career.I will come back for sure," said the 27-year-old alumni of the Road to UFC talent development program.

The RTU talent selection program was launched in 2022 specifically for the Asia-Pacific region, and annually awards winners of four divisions — flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight — lucrative multi-fight contracts.

Since the first edition, seven Chinese athletes have earned pro contracts with UFC by punching their way along that pathway.

"The RTU is an extremely important pathway for Asian athletes to get that opportunity (to join the UFC)," said Kevin Chang, UFC senior vice-president and head of Asia.

"For us, it also expands the level of talent in the region."

The consistent efforts by the UFC and local MMA clubs are paying dividends in terms of talent depth, with four of seven Chinese fighters on the Saturday card coming out on top in their respective bouts.

Featherweight prospect Yizha delivered the opening win with a first-round KO of Westin Wilson of the United States in the third bout on the afternoon's preliminary card, followed by lightweight veteran Rongzhu's three-round unanimous decision over American Austin Hubbard in another prelims bout.

China's welterweight prodigy Taiyilake Nueraji got the main card off to a rousing start by beating Irishman Kiefer Crosbie via a first-round TKO, before flyweight contender Sumudaerji out-struck Peruvian Kevin Borjas via a convincing unanimous decision.

All four Chinese winners hail from minority groups, with Taiyilake from the Uygur ethnic group and the other three from the Tibetan ethnic group.