Mixed martial arts: why China could be huge for MMA thanks to deep talent pool, sport’s heritage and support trainee fighters get
Cage fighting has taken off in the past few years in China, and with martial arts’ deep cultural roots in the country, trainee fighters’ every need taken care of and several potential champions, all the ingredients for dominance are there
Cage fighting has taken off in the past few years in China, and with martial arts’ deep cultural roots in the country, trainee fighters’ every need taken care of and several potential champions, all the ingredients for dominance are there
Pummelling his opponent with hammer fists and kicks, Chen Lei frees himself from a leg lock. His Indonesian opponent Jeremy Meciaz, looking frazzled, strikes Chen in a final counter attack, only to be met with another barrage of punches. The onslaught stops only when the referee calls the bout, awarding Chen a technical knockout.
Chen’s May victory in Singapore, in a fight staged under the auspices of the ONE Championship – a mixed martial arts media company based in the Lion City – continued the rising Chinese MMA star’s winning streak.
Dubbed “Rock Man”, the 28-year-old native of Hunan province has won five fights since he arrived on the scene last year. Yet the former car salesman says he had only intended to learn martial arts so he could teach his mother self-defence.
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“She was not physically strong, so I learned tai chi to teach her,” he says. “Then I learned muay Thai, boxing, wrestling and sanda. Later I left for Shanghai to follow Sergio Cunha, a [Brazilian] trainer who has coached seven MMA world champions. He taught me everything: boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, cage fighting. He said I would become the best fighter.”
Chen’s victory in Singapore was his first international fight and a boost to the Chinese MMA scene. In recent years the sport has been growing rapidly in popularity in China, which has its fair share of aspiring future champions, including Guan “The Dongbei Tiger” Wang, Xian “The Executioner” Ji, and Zhang “The Wolf” Tiequan.