From ancient China to the Octagon

How thousands of years of martial arts history influenced Zhang Weili's UFC world-title victory in Shenzhen last week

Forty-two seconds. That's all it took for Zhang Weili to be crowned China's first UFC world champion after the Hebei province native knocked out Brazil's Jessica Andrade in a strawweight bout in Shenzhen last Saturday.

The reality, however, is that the elevation of a Chinese fighter to an elite Octagon performer has been a long time in the making.