UFC: Zhang Weili thanks Chinese fans for sending rice with Las Vegas shelves empty amid coronavirus crisis
- Strawweight champion ‘touched’ by gesture as she prepares to stay in her rented US home for a month
- Fans also gift Zhang face masks, hand sanitiser bottles, sausages and traditional Chinese medicine
Zhang Weili has revealed why she is staying in Las Vegas rather than returning to China, with the UFC strawweight champion stacking up supplies for a possible month-long lockdown in the city.
The 30-year-old talked to fans and answered their questions in a 90-minute live-stream on the Chinese video platform Douyin from her rented home as the city experiences coronavirus lockdown.
Zhang explained her decision to stay in the US after beating Joanna Jedrzejczyk on march at UFC 248 was not just to avoid exposure to the coronavirus on the journey back to China, as her coach had earlier told Chinese media – the strict Usada doping tests she is subject to as champion were also a factor.
She said her diet could be controlled more easily in the US to comply with Usada regulations and that her team have prepared food for a month.
Zhang also thanked overseas Chinese for keeping her fridge stocked with Chinese food during her prolonged stay in Las Vegas, after fans sent supplies to her following a video she posted of empty shelves in the city’s supermarkets.
“I am very touched. In a foreign country, I can receive the care and help of Chinese friends. We have never seen it before. We can’t buy rice. They sent us rice. I am afraid we don’t have a pot to do it – for the rice, they also sent the pot to us.”