TUF: China winner Zhang Lipeng celebrates his win in Macau | Photo by Anton Tabuena
Select UFC Academy members will compete on the Asia edition of Dana White’s Contender Series.
According to a UFC press release out of China, the promotion recently completed its second ever UFC Combine. The event, held at the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai, tested athletes with MMA-themed trials to obtain a set of metrics. Those who impressed there might have some big UFC opportunities on the horizon.
The first UFC combine took place earlier this year, also in Shanghai. In that event twenty-five athletes earned ‘full ride scholarships’ at the UFC Academy; a training school that operates out of the UFC PI. According to the press release those athletes have amassed a combined record of 23-3 since enrollment.
In its latest combine the UFC hosted forty athletes. Twenty of those athletes were already enrolled at the UFC Academy. Here’s how they were tested, per the press release:
“They were tested on 72 individual metrics in 12 categories covering technical skill (wrestling, grappling and striking) with physical ability (explosive lower and upper body power, maximum strength, anaerobic power, anaerobic capacity, reaction time, aerobic recoverability).”
Based on the results of the combine ten athletes were selected to join the UFC Academy. Those athletes are:
- Ma Haobin (12-6), men’s flyweight, China
- Sha Yilan (10-5), men’s lightweight, China
- Lv Zhenhong (18-6), men’s featherweight, China
- Aoriqileng (16-6), men’s bantamweight, China
- Rong Zhu (12-3), men’s lightweight, China
- Ba Lajin (11-1), men’s lightweight, China
- Han Guangmei (4-0 amateur), women’s bantamweight, China
- Yan Qihui, (8-3), women’s flyweight, China
- Liang Na, (9-4), women’s flyweight, China
- Ramona Pascual, (3-2), women’s bantamweight, Hong Kong
In 2020 the UFC plans to host their first-ever Asia edition of Dana White’s Contender Series, which is scheduled to take place at the UFC PI in Shanghai. Selected UFC Academy members will compete on that show.