A win would mark Mingyang\u2019s fourth in a row since becoming the first Chinese fighter to earn a contract through the Road to UFC show<\/a>, and help propel him up the Light Heavyweight rankings.<\/p>\n However, it is still too early to consider him an all-time great from China, as there have been numerous fighters who blazed the trail for him and made their names in the UFC and beyond.<\/p>\n Here are the five best Chinese MMA fighters of all time, including one woman who is still breaking records in the UFC.<\/p>\n While there may be other fighters considered the greatest Chinese stars in the UFC, Xiong Jing Nan is the undisputed queen of Asian MMA.<\/p>\n The Panda was the first-ever Chinese world champion in mixed martial arts, despite only starting her MMA journey when switching over from boxing at the age of 18.<\/p>\n Since then, she has dominated the ONE Championship at Strawweight, building a legacy that surpasses all of her colleagues.<\/p>\n Jing Nan is 19-2 in her career, and has held the Strawweight belt unbroken since 2018. Her seven-year reign is unmatched in the promotion, and eleven years into her career, she looks as good as she ever has.<\/p>\n 4. Yan Xiaonan<\/p>\n As a top Women\u2019s Strawweight and ranked on the pound-for-pound list, Yan Xiaonan<\/a> seems to be on her way to world title glory in the UFC.<\/p>\n The Chinese fighter has been the perennial nearly-woman in her career, falling at the final hurdle before achieving greatness. <\/p>\n She challenged Zhang Weili in an all-Chinese title fight at UFC 300<\/a>, pushing the legend all the way before losing a heartbreaking bout by unanimous decision after five rounds.<\/p>\n That fight was the first time two Chinese fighters had competed for a UFC title, as Xiaonan made history in defeat.<\/p>\n While consistency has been her issue so far, she has the ability to fix her mistakes and improve her #3 ranking in the Women\u2019s Strawweight division to push on to title glory.<\/p>\n 3. Yadong Song<\/p>\n At the age of just 27, Yadong Song<\/a> has a huge future ahead of him and some impressive performances behind him.<\/p>\n The Kung Fu Kid came into the UFC on short notice, battling Baharat Kandare at the UFC\u2019s last trip to Shanghai and choking him out with a brutal-looking guillotine.<\/p>\n His career has gone from strength to strength since then, losing just three times in eight years to climb the ranks of the Featherweight division.<\/p>\n His only losses have come to top fighters like Cory Sandhagen and Petr Yan, showing that Song still has some ways to go before he can reach those upper echelons.<\/p>\n However, the #5-ranked Bantamweight has all the tools to become a champion one day and cement himself as a Chinese fighting great.<\/p>\n 2. Li Jingliang<\/p>\n Li Jingliang<\/a> is a trailblazer, becoming one of the first Chinese fighters to achieve success in the UFC after being trained by former UFC Lightweight Zhang Tiequan.<\/p>\n He was a Welterweight champion in the Legends FC promotion in China before making the move to the United States to compete in the UFC.<\/p>\n Jingliang debuted at UFC 173, achieving an impressive split-decision victory over David Michaud, although mixed results at the start of his run would halt his momentum.<\/p>\n However, a series of victories and a host of bonuses for some incredible knockout victories made Jingliang a fan-favorite, as he won 7 fights between 2016 and 2019 to climb the UFC rankings.<\/p>\n Sadly, the Chinese fighter couldn\u2019t string together enough wins to earn a title shot, and was last seen getting knocked out by Carlos Prates at UFC 305.<\/p>\n However, at his peak, there is no doubting that Jingliang is one of the best Chinese fighters to compete in the UFC.<\/p>\n 1. Zhang Weili<\/p>\n Not only is Zhang Weili<\/a> the greatest Chinese MMA star, but she is in the argument for being one of the top female fighters in UFC history.<\/p>\n The UFC Women\u2019s Strawweight champion is a two-time holder of the belt, beating numerous top challengers like Joanna Jedrzejczyk<\/a> and Jessica Andrade<\/a> to reign as queen of the division.<\/p>\n Weili has lost only three times in her career, with one being her first-ever fight back in 2013. Her two UFC losses came against Rose Namajunas, proving to be her kryptonite inside the octagon.<\/p>\n She is the first-ever Chinese champion in UFC history, the first two-time Women\u2019s Strawweight champion in history, and a trailblazer for Chinese fighters to aspire to be like.<\/p>\n With her second title reign still going strong, it will take a really special talent to overtake her as China\u2019s greatest MMA fighter. It could be done by Mingyang, but it will take some impressive performances to be considered better than Weili.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite being in the main event of the UFC\u2019s return to China, Zhang Mingyang still has a long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,63221,785,85,787,63222,21216,63223,63224,63225,63226],"class_list":{"0":"post-83958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-li-jingliang","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-shanghai","16":"tag-xiong-jing-nan","17":"tag-yadong-song","18":"tag-yan-xiaonan","19":"tag-zhang-mingyang","20":"tag-zhang-weili"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Zhang](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2198470511-1024x742.jpg\")
Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC5. Xiong Jing Nan<\/p>\n