“The other kids at that martial arts school wanted to train, but I just wanted to fight,” he recalls. Even at a young age, he had the drive and self-confidence to believe he could make it as a fighter. But I finally felt what it was like to be in a fight - and there’s no other feeling like it.” “He was the best kid in my division, and he just knocked me down to the floor, almost straight away. “I’d only really been training for six months, and my coaches knew I wouldn’t win - but I just wanted to have a fight,” says Song. There was no way Song was going to say no. But he soon returned home, after discovering the schools are more about training - and discipline - than actually getting into fights.īy 13, Song had started formal, government-run training in sanda, or Chinese kickboxing, and that was when he received the challenge from the biggest - and best - kid in his class. At just 9 years old, he convinced his parents to send him to the martial arts schools that surround the famed Shaolin Temple complex in central China’s Henan province. Now, I see it as my mission … I want to show how good male fighters from China can be, too.”īorn in the northeastern city of Harbin, Song has been obsessed with combat since childhood. “So, I hadn’t really thought much about leading a new generation before recently. Only one other Chinese fighter has ever got that far: the former women’s strawweight champion, Zhang Weili. Win, and Song will be ranked in the top five - and the odds are that very soon he’ll get a crack at a historic title fight.
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