UFC: China’s Li Jingliang stops ‘King of Kung Fu’ Muslim Salikhov; Su Mudaerji choked out by Matt Schnell in bloody scrap

Chinese mixed martial arts stars Li Jingliang and Su Mudaerji returned to the Octagon with mixed results at Saturday’s UFC Long Island event in New York.

Li, a 34-year-old welterweight who fights out of Beijing, was in action in the third to last fight of the night, taking on Dagestan’s “King of Kung Fu” Muslim Salikhov.

“The Leech” had a tough first round, as Salikhov let fly with plenty of his patented spinning kicks and grounded the fight with a takedown.

Things went much better for Li in round two, as the pair began to throw heavy artillery at each other with little regard for combinations or defence. That tempo change served him well, as he ultimately stung the Russian Sanda specialist with a big right hand, then finished him off with the a second right and a volley of elbows on the mat for a US$50,000 bonus-winning TKO.

“It was my pleasure fighting with him,” Li said through an interpreter in his post-fight interview. “Muslim is not only a Sanda legend in China, it’s worldwide.

“I’ve known him since I first started training in 2008. It’s my super pleasure fighting him.”

Li (19-7) is one of the China’s most accomplished fighters. He is currently ranked No 14 in the stacked UFC welterweight division, and while his win over the unranked Salikhov might not move him up the rankings, it separated him from a lopsided submission loss to surging contender Khamzat Chimaev.

While Li will return to China with a reason to celebrate, his countryman Su Mudaerji was not so lucky.

The Tibetan-born 26-year-old, who has recently been training at Team Alpha Male in California and American Top Team in Florida, was in action one fight earlier on the card, taking on Matt Schnell at flyweight. He was ranked four spots below Schnell in the division, at No 12, but entered the cage as a significant betting favourite nonetheless.

The first round of the fight was very entertaining – good for a US$50,000 Fight of the Night bonus. The two fighters spent most of the round grappling, with Schnell threatening with submissions, and Su mounting several tense escapes and firing back with punches and even a big slam.

But things took a turn for the worse for the Chinese fighter in round two, as his submission defence finally failed and he was tapped out by triangle choke with a little over half a minute left on the clock.

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Su (16-5) was on a three-fight streak heading into the bout, with wins over Andre Soukhamthath, Malcolm Gordon and Zarrukh Adashev, but will now have to return to the drawing board.

The event on Long Island was headlined by a clash of featherweight contenders as No 2 ranked American Brian Ortega took on the No 3-ranked Yair Rodriguez of Mexico. Unfortunately, the fight ended in disappointment, when Ortega (15-3) was forced out of action with a dislocated shoulder.

After the event, Rodriguez (15-3) expressed willingness to rebook the fight in pursuit of a more definitive outcome, but also called for a crack at the division’s dominant champion, Alexander Volkanovski.

Miesha Tate (19-9), a former executive at Singapore-based martial arts promotion ONE Championship, was also back in action on the card. The American, who briefly held the UFC bantamweight title in 2016, was defeated by Lauren Murphy by decision in her flyweight debut.