Li Jingliang had no plans to get into MMA but as fate would have it, he is now a UFC welterweight and a fan favorite at that! He started his MMA training under Bao Li Gao at 16 and since then he has been unstoppable. Li always loved farming but resonated with the perseverance of the field with practice inside the gym. He has had a trusted team of coaches and fighters who have trained him to become one of the best Welterweight fighters from China.

On that note let’s see who he trains with and the amazing team of fighters that he has beside him.

All we know about Li Jingliang’s gym and teammates

He is under the China Top Team gym in Beijing and the gym was founded in 1992. His team members include fighters like, “Iron Horse” Dulile, Shayilan “Wolverine” Nuerdanbiek, Cong Liu, and Nannan He. He made his debut in 2014 in Las Vegas and two years later he was back in the fight capital of the world delivering a marvelous KO to Anton Zafir in only three minutes. ‘The Leech’ was finally being recognized in the UFC World and he is returning at UFC 305.

Now everyone knows his name because he has shown his fighting prowess in securing victory against Bobby Nash Zak Ottow, David Zawada, and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos. “There was an amateur sports school in my city, Tacheng. … They gave me an offer because they thought I could be a good wrestler,” said Li. “I took the offer back home and my parents asked me if I would like to be an athlete. Since I had no concept of the sport, I said ‘No’.” However, once he realized the power he had, there was no stopping him.

Li had always thought of becoming a farmer and if it weren’t for Bruce Lee who was his inspiration and his parents, he would probably have become a farmer. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he moved to the capital city with his coach and began his professional training. In 2013 he became the welterweight champion of the Legend Fighting Championship. Now the 19-8-0 Fighter trains under Zhang Tiequan.

Meet Zhang Tiequan, Li Jingliang’s coach

‘The Leech’ trains hard with his team every day from morning until night and is always focused on his training with his coaches. He started by practicing Sanda and wrestling and looked up to his coaches Bao Li Gao and Zhang Tiequan.  Zhang is a native of China’s inner Mongolia and he started his training in wrestling when he was a young elementary school child. Li’s coach is the first Chinese fighter to come into UFC and had also won the Mongolian wrestling championship at the age of 16. He was then recruited into one of China’s top academies that taught Sanda where he established himself as a high-level combat sports athlete winning several national titles.

Zhang embraced the opportunity of training and competing at 2004 and since then he has found victory all over the world. No wonder he is one of the best coaches in China! He operates out of China’s Top Team in Beijing. He has a marvellous record of 15-4-0 and fought his last bout on November 10 2012 but his journey just got better! Now he coaches amazing fighters with his brilliance and sees them winning matches back to back.

He has a strong relationship with Li and it was apparent from the UFC Fighter Focus video. He called his coach his brother and said that the AOW match made a big impact on Zhang. Tiequan said while speaking about first impressions, “ I haven’t seen Li Jingliang Before but I knew he was a student of Bao Ligao.” He also expected his future pupil to be defeated because he was not trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

For the first 10 minutes, Li was punched around the ring and was exhausted but in the second round, everything changed. Li won the fight through a knockout and had completely massacred his opponent which made a big impression on Zhang. This is how they met and started training together. Li was also inspired by his coach because his coach was the first UFC fighter from China. The common goal of achieving something for their country got them together.

Now he is coming back at UFC 305 to set another record. What do you think about his journey so far? Tell us in the comments below.