UFC 261: Zhang Weili’s first coach knew she’d be China’s first champ the day she walked through the door
- ‘I told the other fighters she is going to be the one. You could see that she was a fireball,’ says Vincent Soberano, one of the first MMA coaches in China
- ‘There were no girls for her to grapple with … but people learned quickly if you softened up with Weili, she’d knock your head off
Vincent Soberano was there when the first MMA gym was opened in China and he was there when the woman who would become the nation’s first UFC champion walked through the door.
Today he recalls these events with crystal clarity, despite the passage of time, simply because on both occasions Soberano saw the shape of things to come.
There was the passion he saw in fighters who founded China Top Team in Beijing in 2005, having first taught themselves the rudimentary skills of MMA via YouTube, which had only just been launched, and having been captivated by UFC broadcasts. And there was the sheer potential carried by the then 20-year-old Zhang Weili when she appeared at the gym in 2011, pulled on the four ounce MMA gloves for the first time, and said she wanted to learn how to fight.
“The first time I met her you could see she was just tough,” recalls Soberano. “I told the other fighters if ever there was going to be a female champion from China, this girl is going to be it. She’s going to be the one. From the moment we first saw her train you could see she was a fireball.”