UFC: China’s ‘Mongolian Knight’ Heili Alateng looking to carve up bantamweight division
- The Chinese fighter takes a 2-0 record in the UFC into the October 3 bout against American Casey Kenney
- ‘I’m not in a rush. If the opportunities emerge, I will knock him out,’ said the 28-year-old
It’s a sign of the times that Chinese bantamweight prospect Heili “The Mongolian Knight” Alateng is still wondering where, exactly, his next fight might be staged.
The contract has now been officially signed and Heili (14-7-1) knows he’ll be up against American Casey Kenney (14-2-1) on October 3’s UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Aldana card. But the lurking threat of Covid-19 has meant the UFC has not yet decided whether the Chinese fighter will be heading to Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi and “Fight Island” – both venues offering some degree of isolation from the virus.
Not that it’s of much concern to Heili. He’ll fight where and whenever he’s asked – fully confident in his own ability – and it’s a policy that has worked pretty well so far.
“My fighting style is simple and effective,” is how the Inner Mongolia-born 28-year-old sells his game. “I don’t have many flashy moves, but all my moves are effective.”
Heili is a fighter who has come a very long way in a very short time. Just over a year ago he was plucked from the relative obscurity of the freshly formed UFC Academy at the organisation’s Performance Institute in Shanghai and he was placed on the undercard of the UFC Fight Night 157: Andrade v Zhang card in Shenzhen.