to graduate a decade earlier but still
wanted to train. He volunteered to
coach me once. I asked if he was free
in the daytime, and he said yes. I
asked if he was free at night, and he
said yes.
“So what do you do?” I asked.
“I don’t do anything,” he answered.
Zhengtong said that the guy finally
found a job doing menial labor
in Shanghai. Under Chinese law,
however, citizens are not allowed
to move from the provinces to the Photos Courtesy of Antonio GraceffoThe Ex-Fighters of Weifang, Part 2
In the city of Weifang, China, my friend Zhengtong drove me to eight hotels until we found one that was licensed to
accept foreign guests. I checked in, and the next day, he picked me up for training. Along the way, I asked him what
he did every day to pass the time. He said he sleeps until 11 a.m. and then plays video games on his phone. Luckily, his
family supports him; otherwise, he’d be on the street.
BY ANTONIO GRACEFFO, PH.D.W
E REMINISCED about
our training mates at
Shanghai University
of Sport and wondered
what they were doing now. One of
them, a judo major, told us he couldn’t
graduate. He’d competed for three
years but accumulated no academic
credits. Someone had convinced him
to open an MMA gym, but it was fail-
ing. China just doesn’t have enough
people yet who have money and want
to train in MMA, it seems.Meanwhile, Zhengtong said he
was struggling to get his own MMA
career off the ground. Because there’s
no money in judo or wrestling, MMA
is the only option for many guys.
Unfortunately, after a lifetime of
training in exactly one discipline, it’s
nearly impossible for most of them to
learn new ways of fighting.
We were reminded of an older man
from Inner Mongolia who used to
hang around the wrestling room at
the university. Apparently, he failed26 BLACKBELTMAG.COM § AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019