China’s first UFC champion recently shared that her family has been pressuring her to get married, but she is afraid to use her real name on dating websites for fear of revealing her identity.
Thirty-six-year-old mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Zhang Weili discussed her difficulties finding a boyfriend during an interview with mainland influencer Papi Jiang (known in English as Pepi Sauce) in late October.
The interview has received a total of 230,000 likes and more than 10,000 comments across social media platforms, thanks to Zhang’s popularity in China, Jiangxi TV reported.
Zhang revealed that her family’s biggest complaint about her is that she does not have a boyfriend.
“Since this year, they have been putting more pressure on me to get married. I have browsed a lot of dating websites. But when I want to learn more personal information about the men on these sites, the platforms require me to register under my real name. So I have to give up,” Zhang said in the interview.
“I aspire to find love, but I haven’t found it yet,” she added.
Zhang said her ideal boyfriend should have a good personality, be easy to talk to and have an appearance she finds attractive.
She revealed that no Chinese man had courted her so far, while one foreigner had pursued her but stopped after she turned him down.
“If he stopped pursuing me just because I rejected him, I would think he didn’t love me fiercely enough. Another reason I turned him down was the language and cultural differences,” Zhang said.
When asked whether she would be willing to support a future Mr Right who was not ambitious, Zhang blurted out: “I will support him.”
She explained that she was not good at handling daily chores and hoped to find a man whose strengths complemented hers.
“For me, finding a boyfriend is more challenging than competing in an MMA match because people joke online that they’re afraid of domestic violence,” Zhang said.
Zhang, who is from northern Hebei province, began learning martial arts at the age of 12. She shot to fame in 2019 when she became the first fighter from China to win a UFC championship. She won the title again three years later.
As of June this year, Zhang ranked first in the UFC women’s strawweight division.
“After watching her interview, I found Weili to be gentler, more insightful and more charming than I had thought. I hope she finds her Mr Right soon,” one internet user commented.
Another person echoed this sentiment, saying: “Contrary to what the public might expect, she is actually a little girl at heart.”
Zhang is not the only Chinese female athlete who has faced difficulties finding a boyfriend.
Gong Lijiao, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics gold medallist in shot put, told the media last year that she planned to lose at least 25kg and “become beautiful” in order to pursue marriage. — SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST