UFC: Wu Yanan says China’s rising female MMA stars ‘can be champions and be pretty too’
- Rising Chinese star Wu back to bantamweight and ready for action at UFC Fight Island 7 on Sunday
- ‘China has many super athletes that are females,’ Wu says. ‘What a man can do, I can do too. But I don‘t need to be acting like a man’
It’s no secret strawweight champion Zhang “Magnum” Weili (21-1) and that division’s third-ranked Yan “Fury” Xiaonan (13-1, one no contest) want to lead a new generation of female Chinese fighters into the UFC.
Bantamweight Wu “Mulan” Yanan (11-3) is already hot on their heels.
The 24-year-old from Chaoyang in Western China says she, too, wants to inspire, as the world wakes up to the talent pool China has at its disposal, and female athletes in the country turn their attention towards MMA.
“I look to my fellow citizens such as Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan as my big sisters and I look to their styles in fighting too,” says Yan. “[Like them] I also think women should not be in a corner and should be recognised. What a man can do I can do too but I don‘t need to be acting like a man.
“China has many Olympic champions and super athletes that are females and I think they are equal to men. We can have our dream and be female, too.
