A Night at the UFC

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In December 2015 I slipped off a stage onto my forehead, causing a concussion that kept me on medical leave for a year (and wrote about it here). Also in December 2015, Conor McGregor threw a counter left cross to knock out José Aldo in 13 seconds, kicking off my MMA fandom. What followed was a decade of streaming fights.But I had never seen one in person. With the UFC coming to New York and China’s greatest female fighter Zhang Weili headlining, I got my hands on a press pass. On Media Day, I walked into a midtown hotel conference room hoping to generate rooting interests by press conference personality. Expecting WWE trash talk, instead I saw reserved professionalism. They were calm, talked about their young kids and Jesus. An older fighter Beneil Dariush, when asked about his legacy, said “My legacy is Christ!”Dagestani (a Muslim ethnic minority in Russia) champion Islam Machachev was the only one relaxed enough to make jokes, while Carlos Prates, Brazilian fighter famous for smoking half a pack a day, talked some shit about his opponent being washed and fans wanting blood. Zhang Weili, former champion, is a feminist hero in China for pushing back against gender norms around aesthetics and marriage. I asked her a few questions in my extra-bad-because-I-was-nervous Chinese. Jordan: You’ve spoken in the past about how Chinese culture influences your fighting, but MMA is a famously international sport. Can you expand on how your Chinese roots influence your fighting style? And what would you want the fighting world to better understand about China?The translator started sum…