THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
The WEC announced on Friday the signing of Tiequan “The Mongolian Wolf” Zhang of Beijing, China to their lightweight roster. He will meet Alex Karalexis at WEC 51 later this month.
Zhang is the first fighter from China to fight in the UFC. Zhang fights out of China Top Team, and sports a perfect 16-0 record.
"Tiequan is an excellent addition to our lightweight division,” WEC General Manager Reed Harris said. “He trains at a tremendous camp in Beijing and we are excited to have him compete with the best lighter weight fighters in the world."
WEC 51 airs live on Versus from the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., on September 30, headlined by a Featherweight Championship bout between Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan.
Penick's Analysis: This is the first part of the Zuffa expansion into Asian countries, and we should expect to see more fighters from China and it's surrounding countries to begin making their way into Zuffa's two organizations in short order. Zhang is an exciting first prospect to come in with his undefeated record, and it should be a good fight between him and Karalexis on the undercard.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP