Sawt Falasteen - Zhang Weili keen to wow home crowd at first mainland post-Covid UFC event

Zhang, the first Chinese fighter to win a UFC title and current strawweight champion, is the face of MMA in a country where millions of dollars have been poured into the sport's top promotion.

The Shanghai Fight Night announced on Thursday is the first event on the mainland since UFC's ambitions there were hampered by the tight travel and quarantine restrictions of the zero-Covid era.

UFC held a Fight Night in semi-autonomous Macau in November but otherwise its last event in China was in Shenzhen in 2019 -- where Zhang took the title for the first time with an upset knockout of champion Jessica Andrade in just 42 seconds.

"Competing on home soil feels completely different," Zhang told AFP, saying she was "really looking forward" to fighting in Shanghai.

"When you step into the arena with a roaring home crowd behind you, it gives you an incredible boost of energy. So when I won the championship in Shenzhen, the atmosphere was absolutely electrifying."

UFC has not confirmed the line-up for the Shanghai event, which will be held on August 23 at the vast Shanghai Indoor Stadium, but Zhang would be a huge omission in a country where she is a household name.

- 'Priority market' -

China is one of UFC's "priority markets" globally, Kevin Chang, its head in Asia, told AFP.

The 2019 launch of a state-of-the-art performance institute in Shanghai, aimed at developing Asian MMA, was a $13 million statement of that interest.

However, China's strict border controls during the pandemic meant the cancellation of most international sports events there until the policies were lifted at the end of 2022.

A planned Shanghai Fight Night in December the following year was relocated to Las Vegas less than a month beforehand because of "logistical issues".

"There were some hurdles along the way, but I think we learned a lot from that," Chang said.

"We've had such a warm reception here in Shanghai this time around... it's been night and day," he said.

Chang said some of China's local governments had also expressed interest in hosting UFC events.

"This is the next frontier. I think we're going to continue to grow and there's a lot of room to grow."

Zhang said she thought the future for the sport was bright.

"So many Chinese athletes are joining the UFC now... I'm confident the sport will continue to grow here," she said.

Fellow UFC fighter Song Yadong, who is ranked fifth in his bantamweight class, agreed.

He is also raring to fight in Shanghai and said he thought the UFC fan base in China had multiplied 10 times since the 2019 Shenzhen bout.

"I think the biggest change is that we have our own champions, such as Zhang Weili," he said.

"Since then there is more foreign media coming and paying attention to Chinese players... Then we continue to prove that we Chinese can also achieve good results in the sport of MMA."

K.Hassan--SF-PST