Ahead of her upcoming championship bout, pro MMA fighter Xiong Jing Nan talks about the "hate comments" she's received as a female fighter, and what drives her.

Chinese mixed martial artist Xiong Jing Nan has much to be proud about. After winning the inaugural ONE Women&#39;s Strawweight World Championship in 2018 &mdash; and becoming the first-ever Chinese world champ in MMA history &mdash; Xiong went on to defend her title for the next 3 years. It&#39;s a stunning ascent to stardom for a woman who started out as a young girl in a village in Shandong, China &mdash; a young girl who was enamoured with classic wu xia movies and longed to make martial arts a part of her life.

In Xiong&#39;s words: &quot;This isn&rsquo;t just a career or hobby to me. I will continue to do this for as long as my body allows me to.&quot;

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But for all her achievements and passion, some still choose to focus on her physical appearance.

It&#39;s a persistent trend, one seen in the recent Olympics as well; one TV anchor described Gong Lijiao &mdash; who won a gold medal in the women&#39;s shot put event &mdash; as a &quot;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/06/chinese-uproar-as-state-tv-host-calls-gold-medal-winner-a-manly-woman">manly woman</a>.&quot; The same anchor later asked Gong questions about finding a boyfriend and her plans for &quot;a woman&#39;s life.&quot; It sparked a renewed conversation on how a woman&#39;s professional achievements are often diminished in favour of a more archaic role.

Image courtesy of Evolve MMA Singapore.

Xiong is familiar with the discourse &mdash; she&#39;s received the same &#39;hate comments&#39; about her appearance, too. &quot;Of course I&#39;ve received such comments,&quot; she says. &quot;But I&#39;m not affected by them. I can&#39;t speak for other female athletes, but these kind of comments only motivate me.

&quot;But I also want female athletes to know that it&rsquo;s not about what people say about your body,&quot; she adds, &quot;It&#39;s what&#39;s inside that&#39;s more important.&quot;

Below, Xiong talks about her upcoming championship fight, her training regime, and how that young girl from Shandong followed her dream to become a world-renowned martial artist.

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How do you feel about your upcoming fight with Michelle Nicolini? Are there any specific things you&#39;re watching out or training for?

I feel really good, both mentally and physically. I&rsquo;m working more on my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game but I&rsquo;m also working on my striking and counters to ensure I have a well-rounded game. It&rsquo;s about preparing yourself to be the best martial artist you can be &ndash; not just perfecting your game in one area.

I really enjoy training under the world champion instructors at EVOLVE MMA. They are so committed to teaching and passing on the knowledge they have. I have learnt a lot from them, and they have really helped to improve several areas of my game across all martial arts disciplines, be it in Muay Thai, Boxing, or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

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What does your training schedule look like now?

I train two times a day, same as the other athletes in the EVOLVE Fight Team &ndash; regardless of whether we have an upcoming fight. It&rsquo;s definitely more focused now as we approach match day. My day usually starts at 7.15am with one cup of coffee. I usually go to bed between 8pm to 10.30pm but never past 11pm.

When did you start doing martial arts? Was there a moment that made you want to make it a full-time career?

I can&rsquo;t put an age to it. I remember even as a young child; I was climbing trees and the roof of houses in the village I lived in. I enjoyed doing what the boys in the village were doing.

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Before this, I was training in Olympic-style weightlifting. I was in the school team, and I was recognised and outstanding in China. I trained for nine months but would beat people with over 10 years of experience.

I came across boxing by chance. I was climbing the tree one day and I saw a guy who I didn&rsquo;t recognise running around. The community is small so generally, everyone knew everyone, but I didn&rsquo;t know him. I asked around and was told he was from the boxing team.

I found out where he trained and would often sneak in at night to watch. The coach spotted me and told me to give it a shot. After training one or two classes, the coach thought I had talent and took me in.

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It was a big switch for me. At the time, I could have gone on to earn money from Olympic weightlifting and I had trained so hard for it. Moving over to boxing would mean starting afresh but I knew I had more interest and enjoyed boxing a lot more.

This isn&rsquo;t just a career to me, it&rsquo;s also more than just a hobby to me. To put it bluntly, I can say I gave up my family to pursue a career in this sport. I have no sight as to what happens back home. I will continue to do this for as long as my body allows me to.

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During the Olympics, a lot of professional sportswomen were called &quot;manly-looking&quot; by netizens just because they have athletic physiques. Have you received comments like that, and what are your thoughts on the issue?

Yes, of course I have, but I&rsquo;m not affected by such comments. I can&rsquo;t speak for other female athletes but these kind of hate comments only motivate me to want to push harder to always be the best in my sport.

I also want female athletes to know that it&rsquo;s not about what people say about your body &ndash; it&rsquo;s how it makes you feel and what drives you to be the best in your sport. It is also what&rsquo;s inside that&rsquo;s more important. You&rsquo;re very skilful and good at your sport, and because of the passion you have for it &ndash; you will do whatever it takes to equip yourself with what&rsquo;s necessary. It just depends on how much you want it.

There are people around you who love you, do it for yourself and for them, don&rsquo;t let this noise affect you.

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You&rsquo;ve said that your father was very supportive in your martial arts career. Most Chinese parents &mdash; especially fathers &mdash; are pretty traditional, and would want equally traditional lives for their daughters, but obviously, your father supported your passion. How do you feel about this?

It means a lot to me and it gives me such great motivation to want to pursue and do well in my sport. My family has always been supportive in whatever it is I want to do and they won&rsquo;t force or influence me to pursue something I won&rsquo;t be happy in. For that, I&rsquo;m very grateful and happy.

"I want female athletes to know it's not about what people say about your body"

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