With her rise to stardom from an unlikely background intriguing fans around the world, doctor-turned-fighter Shi Ming has helped mixed martial arts tap into a larger fan base, particularly women in China.

The 30-year-old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner's ascent into the brutal world of professional MMA seems at odds with her day job as an acupuncturist at a Kunming hospital in Yunnan province, relaxing patients' muscles and easing their pain. She had even kept her martial arts ambitions a secret from her parents for years.

Shi Ming (right) competes with her compatriot Feng Xiaocan during the UFC Fight Night in Macao on Nov 23, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

But, at the Ultimate Fighting Championship's Fight Night in Macao on Nov 23, the soft-spoken Heilongjiang province native revealed her fierce alter ego in a sensational knockout win to earn a contract with the Las Vegas-based MMA organization.

Shi did it in ferocious style in the third round, with a vicious head kick to her opponent Feng Xiaocan.

Her victory in the "Road to UFC "final, makes her the 16th Chinese fighter to sign with the UFC, a major MMA promoter.

The UFC has developed a group of Asian female stars, led by reigning strawweight world champion Zhang Weili, since it made its China debut in 2012 in the Macao Special Administrative Region.

The RTU tournament was launched in 2022 as a qualifying event for enthusiasts in Asia to compete for UFC contracts in four weight classes.

Among those shocked by Shi's KO win in Macao were her parents. They had no idea what their daughter did in the gym after her six-hour shift at the hospital, let alone that she was fighting in an MMA qualification tournament that night. They only found out about her secret life when they heard news of her victory.

Shi is coming to terms with her newfound fame.

"People are now starting to recognize me on the streets. A lot of changes have been happening in my life, and I still need time to get used to the exposure," Shi said after completing the "glove-signing" ritual on Dec 9 to mark her arrival in the UFC.

"I will continue with my clinical medical work, at least for now. But, I will try to spend more time in training, and focus more on my fighting career.

"My goal is to fight for the world championship belt in the UFC while I am still young," said Shi, who competes in the same 52-kilogram division as her idol Zhang.

Untypical pathway

Still maturing in her technical skills when compared with the pros, Shi's breakout win in Macao has given the combat sport's profile a huge boost. Her story of self-reliance and development resonates with a large group of fans in China.

Most of Shi's predecessors now in the professional ranks were drafted by MMA organizations from China's State-run sports system, where the early parts of their training focused on disciplines such as wrestling, boxing and sanda, or Chinese kickboxing.

The UFC's top Chinese star Zhang used to be a full-time sanda fighter and developed her skills in the Hebei provincial team. China's first men's MMA world titleholder Tang Kai, who fights under the Singapore-based ONE Championship, started out in the wrestling program in his native Hunan province.

"The Doctor", as Shi is called in the octagon fighting arena, has proved it's possible to take the leap from an amateur gym to the pro ranks, given the right guidance and opportunities.

"I needed the opportunity so much," said Shi, who became interested in MMA because of its versatility while studying TMC at college.

"As an ordinary person, I don't have advantages in size, range, or power in the strawweight division, and I have high-degree myopia," she said.

"Reflecting on my journey, I believe it was the long odds that I had to fight against every time that forced me to always practice harder. Beyond its brutal appearance, MMA is more about your mind and strategy."

Shi's training partners and coaches at the China Catch Wrestling club in Kunming have long expected her foray into the octagon, given her relentless training schedule of three times a week over six years.

"She seems just like the girl next door in your neighborhood — the same as anyone else," said Li Xuan, one of Shi's training partners. "But once she puts on her training outfit, she becomes different, a very tough fighter."

Bagher Amanolahi, Shi's Iranian coach, said of her MMA prospects: "This is just a beginning for us. We are aiming for the championship title. We have just started, and now we can really show our talent."

Wider recognition

Inspired by Zhang's groundbreaking UFC world title in 2019, growing awareness of MMA in China, a cradle of martial arts, has resulted in greater participation in amateur training. The number of fitness clubs offering entry-level courses for MMA, or other combat sports, is mushrooming across the country.

Shi's amazing story is expected to draw even more health-conscious young Chinese — especially those stressed out by the fast pace of urban life — to try their hand at MMA to stay physically and mentally fit.

"MMA is a great sport, even for ordinary people who want to stay healthy, release their negative emotions, or just try to lose weight," Zhang said before Shi's fight in Macao.

"There weren't so many combat sports fans in China before the rise of MMA. We have more now, and we need more participants as well," said the 34-year-old, who returns to the octagon in Sydney in February to defend her strawweight title against challenger Tatiana Suarez of the United States.

"I believe that what we do right now will help MMA punch into the sports mainstream in our country and attract more people to give it a try," she added.

Combat sports' rise in popularity has also made it to the big screen. The comedy YOLO, this year's highest-grossing film in China, struck a chord with cinemagoers for its portrayal of an overweight woman regaining her self-confidence after facing a series of adversities and fighting in a professional boxing match.

Starring popular actress and director Jia Ling, the movie sparked new interest in boxing, especially among women.

Since the film premiered in February, online searches for services and products related to boxing have increased 388.4 percent year-on-year, according to data from e-commerce platform Meituan. Sales of martial arts and combat sports training courses have increased by over 232 percent year-on-year. Women accounted for 67 percent of the searches.

Qu Zhongyuan, head of a Hurricane Fight Club boxing gym in Beijing's Chaoyang district, said the growth in the number of female enthusiasts was something he'd long expected.

Since his gym opened in 2022, women have accounted for about 60 percent of clients signing up for boxing and other combat sports classes.

"One of the reasons boxing is so popular among women is that it helps get rid of pent-up stress through all that punching, and it aligns with the human urge to vent frustration through physical activity," he said.

"With or without the movie, I think boxing and combat sports in general have always been on a steady rise among the most popular gym activities in recent years," he said.

Consistent investment

Thanks to growing public interest and the government's push to elevate the country's sports industry, the world's major MMA promoters have deepened their reach into the Chinese market, despite live events being suspended for years due to the pandemic.

As the first international MMA promoter to host fights on the Chinese mainland, Singapore-based ONE Championship has staged 12 live events in six Chinese cities since its first in Beijing in 2014.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed last month between ONE and the city of Jinan, capital of Shandong province, is expected to see the promoter bring live fights to China for three years in a row.

"The growing appetite for combat sports in China has been significant, highlighted by the popularity of relevant classes among gym-goers and the trending content on social media," Annie Li, president of ONE Championship China, said after the MOU was announced.

"Combined with the cultural heritage of martial arts in China, this paves the way for MMA to make deeper inroads in a sustainable way here," she added.

From four fighters in 2016, ONE has now signed over 60 Chinese MMA athletes, led by men's featherweight champion Tang and women's strawweight titleholder Xiong Jingnan. It has also kept expanding its talent development system in the country through cooperation with sports schools, MMA gyms and media partners.

For the UFC, another major player, its ambitions in China have expanded beyond the elite ranks to include getting people involved in the sport at the grassroots level.

During last month's events in Macao, the UFC took its MMA-inspired physical fitness contest to the city for the first time. The event drew a massive number of participants to test their reactions, striking power and grip strength, while trying MMA pros' training methods.

The series of contests was launched in July 2023 in partnership with the leisure sports department of the General Administration of Sport of China to raise awareness about the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle. It also aims to improve fitness levels of the Chinese public by leveraging UFC resources in fitness conditioning, nutrition and rehabilitation.

"We know how to test and evaluate the various techniques in our sport. And these have all been integrated into this mixed martial arts-inspired fitness competition," said Kevin Chang, UFC senior vice-president and head of UFC Asia.

"We also have expertise in training the nontechnical aspects of all sports of which strength and conditioning are particularly relevant …We've trained countless elite-level athletes of all sports disciplines, and this has contributed greatly to how we've designed the format of the competition."

The fitness contest reflects the UFC's commitment to not just helping develop the country's burgeoning MMA scene, but also facilitating the entire sports and fitness sector, Chang added.

"I think it goes much broader than that," Chang said of the UFC's investment in China, which includes the establishment of the Performance Institute, a multi-function training facility, in Shanghai.

"We want to come in and lend our expertise in overall sports science in various aspects of training for athletes of all disciplines to improve their chances of success."