‘Be water’: how Bruce Lee inspired UFC champ Zhang Weili and China’s rising MMA stars
- Zhang Weili recalls becoming ‘formless, shapeless’ – just like Bruce Lee preached – when she won the UFC strawweight title in Shenzhen
- Song Yadong, Li Jingliang, Yan Xiaonan, and Xiong Jingnan also discuss Bruce Lee’s impact on their careers as ESPN’s 30 for 30 returns spotlight to martial arts legend
Zhang “Magnum” Weili’s rise to become the UFC’s first Chinese champion has been etched into MMA folklore.
The victory came, on August 31 last year in Shenzhen, when Zhang demolished Brazil’s Jessica Andrade in just 42 seconds to claim the strawweight crown.
The seeds of inspiration had been sown years before, when Zhang had dreamed that one day she might “fly” like the martial arts heroes she had witnessed in China’s famed wuxia films, and she had seen a clip of Bruce Lee’s famous “Be water, my friend” speech, first screened on television in 1971.
It was after the Andrade fight, when left to her own thoughts, that Zhang penned a personal essay for The Players Tribune that revealed just how much the moment meant, and how it forced her to reflect back on watching that clip, all those years ago.
“When I think of the fight itself, it is hard to put it into words what I was feeling,” Zhang wrote. “I was just so relaxed, so at peace, almost in a spiritual state. I was in that magical zone where you can see your opponent’s moves in slow motion.
“Just like in the movies.
“What I experienced that night in Shenzhen was not something logical. I could feel it, feel that my mind was empty, that everything just flowed. That I flowed.
“I was formless. Shapeless.
“Like water, my friend.”
Bruce Lee returns to spotlight in ESPN’s ‘Be Water’ documentary
The spotlight has returned to Lee, and to his legacy as an inspiration for modern day fighters, with the screening on the ESPN network of the Bao Nguyen-directed documentary Be Water on Sunday (US time). Lee’s story, of his unique martial arts style and his philosophy, of his early struggles in Hollywood and then his return to Hong Kong and, eventually, global fame, continues to resonate globally, almost 47 years after his death by cerebral oedema on July 20, 1973, aged 32.
But Lee holds a special place in the hearts of the Chinese people he championed.
Zhang is currently tucked away at home in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin as she recovers from her epic three-nation trek to the US to fight former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-4) at UFC 248 back on March 7 – and from the epic fight that followed.
After defending her title across five torrid rounds, Zhang said she wanted to inspire the current generation of China’s MMA stars – much like Lee’s exploits had inspired her.
In the crowd that night in Las Vegas was the UFC’s 14th-ranked bantamweight Song “Kung Fu Monkey” Yadong (16-4-1, one no contest), the 22-year-old who, as a young boy, was so obsessed with kung fu that his parents packed him off to the martial arts schools that surround the famed Shaolin Temple in central Henan Province.
“I started watching kung fu movies at a very young age,” he told the Post this week. “Bruce Lee attracted me with his charming confidence when I watched his movies. It was his spirit of persistence, confidence and unyieldingness that made him the kung fu superstar. His [kung fu] style of jeet kune do combined the best aspects of different martial arts. It's very similar to MMA. So, as a MMA fighter, I learned from him that I need to constantly improve myself in different fighting skills, and of course show the same unyielding spirit that is in my blood.”
The UFC now has nine Chinese fighters on its books, including the 11th-ranked strawweight Yan “Fury” Xiaonan (12-1, one no contest), who’s riding a five-fight win streak in a division currently ruled by her compatriot Zhang.
The 30-year-old Yan started her martial arts journey learning the Chinese kick-boxing art of sanda before making the transition to MMA, and then becoming the first Chinese woman to sign with the UFC.
The northeastern Shenyang-born fighter first saw Lee in the Lo Wei-directed Fist of Fury (1972), the film that cemented him as a bona fide action star in Hong Kong, and helped court the Hollywood money men to his cause.
“I think he was different, he was not like a usual athlete,” said Yan. “Of course he is a legend, and he represents Chinese martial arts. He is our mental leader, and he influenced this generation of fighters. It was Bruce Lee who showed me you have to believe in martial arts to become a martial artist. I have that same belief. Also his eyes are unforgettable. Those eyes showed his faith.”
Outside the UFC, the 32-year-old Xiong “Panda” Jingnan (14-2) was the first Chinese fighter to claim a title with the Singapore-based ONE Championship promotion, which positions itself as Asia’s largest.
The ONE strawweight champion went from weightlifting to boxing before finding inspiration in martial arts movies and making the transition to MMA.
“Bruce Lee brought Chinese kung fu to the global stage,” she said. “I would love to show the world what Chinese power, character and the martial artist spirit is really all about. Just like he did.”
Veteran welterweight Li “The Leech” Jingliang (17-6) has been at the forefront of MMA’s rise across China for the past 12 years as he has worked his way through domestic promotions and in to the UFC.
Li said he grew up watching Lee’s films but it wasn’t until he became a professional athlete that he began to dig deeper into Lee’s theories regarding the fight game, and life.
“At the time Bruce Lee came around not many people knew much about China and the Chinese people,” he said. “Bruce Lee is an icon as a Chinese and he used his unique talents to help people understand who he was, and to fully understand Chinese martial arts.
“What I learned from him was that a warrior must have momentum, and that a warrior must be confident. I think he was a real warrior, he represented the core spirit of Chinese martial arts.”
