'I'm not Yao Ming': China's first UFC champ Zhang Weili creates own hype

Shanghai: Zhang Weili retained her UFC title in March in one of the greatest women's fights in MMA history, was then stranded in the United States for six weeks by coronavirus and finally flew back to China in a protective suit and visor. But after all that, it was the sight of airport and medical staff with "welcome home" scribbled on their own protective gear to greet arriving passengers that deeply affected her. Above: Zhang Weili (L) attends a training session with strength and conditioning coach Ruben Payan at the UFC performance institute in Shanghai.

"I was really touched and excited, I've never felt such warmth in all my life," said China's first and only Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion. The 30-year-old Zhang, who as a child was challenged by her mother to jump out of ditches to toughen her up, has enjoyed a life-changing 10 months.

Last August she thrilled a home crowd in Shenzhen with an upset knockout of UFC champion Jessica Andrade of Brazil in just 42 seconds to make Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) history. Zhang then successfully defended the strawweight title in a brutal dust-up in Las Vegas in early March against Poland's Joanna Jedrzejczyk, despite her build-up being badly disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak.

She boasts a 21-1 MMA record and UFC president Dana White has touted her to rank alongside Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey as a global superstar of the sport.

The excitement surrounding Zhang's swift rise to prominence has reached such an extent in China that she is being mentioned in the same breath as basketball giant Yao Ming, who led the Houston Rockets to the NBA playoffs four times.

But the articulate Zhang, who hails from the northern province of Hebei, gives that lofty comparison a swift verbal jab. "I am not Yao Ming or anyone else," she said. "I just want to be a better me."

Zhang's new-found stardom has seen many more demands placed on her for media and commercial obligations, while she also has an active presence on social media. But she says those have not placed any extra pressure on her or distracted her from training, and she knows that believing her own hype would be fatal for her career.

"I told myself that I must not become lazy, I must remember who I am, I should be the same as before I was champion and keep the desire to win," she said.

"I have to keep that in mind, instead of thinking that I have already made it. "Because once I start thinking like that, it'll fast be the start of the descent."