UFC: six China Academy stars to fight for contracts on Dana White’s Contender Series in October, November

Xie Bin, Long Xiao, Maheshate, Shang Zhifa, Qiu Lun and Yan Qihui look to become latest UFC graduates from Shanghai Performance Institute

Former ONE Championship star Xie is up first on October 12 episode against Olivier Murad

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A graphic posted to the UFC’s official Weibo account of Chinese fighters Long Xiao (top left), Yan Qihui (top, centre), Maheshate (bottom, left), Qiu Lun (bottom, centre) and Zhang Shifa (bottom right), who will compete on Dana White's Contender Series. Photo: UFC/Weibo

Published: 2:23pm, 5 Oct 2021Updated: 2:23pm, 5 Oct 2021

Six Chinese fighters will look to become the latest UFC Academy graduates signed to the promotion when they compete for contracts on season five of Dana White’s Contender Series over the next two months.

The production line out of the UFC Shanghai Performance Institute keeps on rolling, with featherweight Xie Bin (8-2), bantamweight Long Xiao (16-6) lightweight Maheshate (5-1), male flyweights Shang Zhifa (32-7) and Qiu lun (14-7), and female flyweight Yan Qihui (11-3) all set to fight on episodes of the show at the UFC’s Apex facility in Las Vegas over October and November.

The six fighters were selected among 29 athletes at March’s third annual UFC Academy Combine, which allows Chinese and Asian MMA prospects to showcase their skills and earn scholarships to train full time at the US$13 million state-of-the-art PI facility.

Week nine of the Contender Series on October 26 will feature Long, the bantamweight champion of Chinese domestic promotion WLF who is on a 12-fight win streak, and WLF women’s flyweight champ Yan.

The fighters selected for the UFC Academy from the Shanghai Performance Institute's 2021 Combine. Photo: Handout

November 2’s week 10 episode will feature Maheshate, Qiu and “Northeast Flying Tiger” Shang.