Sino-Japan competition starts muay Thai tournaments

A Chinese fighter won China Hero's Mixed Martial Arts contest. Photo provided by Black Tiger Hero

By Zhang Dongya

The professional muay Thai tournament China Hero opened in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, last Sunday with matches between Japan and China.

Chinese fighter Liu Zhonghua won the only Mixed Martial Arts contest, while two of his countrymen and a Japanese fighter dominated the three K-1 matches, a kickboxing competition.

“I hope the tournament will promote Sino-Japanese communication,” Japan’s coach, Hiroyuki Iwakuma, said in a press release. “Through the competition, we also want to exhibit the Japanese fighting spirit and karate techniques.” Both China and Japan entered five fighters in last weekend’s tournament.

The China Hero series, which aims to bring together the world’s best professional muay Thai fighters, will hold five more tournaments in the country this year. In the next four months, Chinese fighters will face opponents from Thailand, South Korea, the US and Russia in matches to be held in Tianjin, Xi’an, Guangzhou and Shanghai. The best fighters from each country will take the ring in Beijing in December. 

All 20 members of the Chinese team were hand-picked from groups in Guangdong, Hunan and Shandong provinces.

China Hero is organized by King of the Cage, the world’s top Mixed Martial Arts competition, which originated in southern California, and Black Tiger Club Hero, the only place in Beijing that offers professional muay Thai training.

Last year, they also sponsored Battlefield X1 “Supremacy,” the Chinese capital’s first professional muay Thai competition, which drew 20 fighters from seven countries.

Black Tiger, founded last year by Vince Soberano, an eight-time world champion from the US, opened its second branch at Workers’ Stadium this month.