Zhang cool as UFC set for China debut today
Source: Agencies |
November 10, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IF Zhang Tiequan is worried about letting 1.3 billion people down when the Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its debut in China today, he is showing no sign.
Zhang faces Jon Tuck of Guam in Macau as the world's biggest mixed martial arts promotion tests Chinese waters for the first time.
Rich Franklin and Cung Le headline the card at The Venetian resort hotel in an event that will have a distinctly Asian flavor and is being targeted at viewers in the region, not primarily the United States.
The shaven-headed Zhang said that fighting in China did bring an element of added pressure but that representing his country in the UFC on Chinese soil was beyond anything he could have imagined as a child. "Back when I was younger doing Mongolian wrestling I could never have imagined that one day I would be fighting in the biggest MMA event held in China."
"China is the birthplace of all martial arts, but this sport, where all the arts are mixed, is just beginning to take root here. You could say that I'm the first real Chinese mixed martial artist," said Zhang, who transferred from wrestling to the Chinese martial art of sanshou before turning to MMA.
Fighters have shuttled between Hong Kong and Macau to boost awareness of the UFC brand and promote the event, as well as the sport itself in a region that gave the world martial arts movies and stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Zhang faces Jon Tuck of Guam in Macau as the world's biggest mixed martial arts promotion tests Chinese waters for the first time.
Rich Franklin and Cung Le headline the card at The Venetian resort hotel in an event that will have a distinctly Asian flavor and is being targeted at viewers in the region, not primarily the United States.
The shaven-headed Zhang said that fighting in China did bring an element of added pressure but that representing his country in the UFC on Chinese soil was beyond anything he could have imagined as a child. "Back when I was younger doing Mongolian wrestling I could never have imagined that one day I would be fighting in the biggest MMA event held in China."
"China is the birthplace of all martial arts, but this sport, where all the arts are mixed, is just beginning to take root here. You could say that I'm the first real Chinese mixed martial artist," said Zhang, who transferred from wrestling to the Chinese martial art of sanshou before turning to MMA.
Fighters have shuttled between Hong Kong and Macau to boost awareness of the UFC brand and promote the event, as well as the sport itself in a region that gave the world martial arts movies and stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
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