Days ago Xu Xiaodong hit the headlines with yet another MMA vs. traditional martial arts fight. Now it has been revealed, thanks to South China Morning Post, that on the same card as Xu another style vs. style battle went down. That bout featured one of Xu’s previous opponents – the self-proclaimed ‘kung fu’ master Tian Ye (who is 56) – taking on on taekwando black-belt Zhang Long.
Tian’s fight with Xu went down in January. According to SCMP Ye was paid 3 million yuan ($440,000) to fight Xu and stood to earn a purse of 30 million yuan ($4.4million) if he could find a victory.
Tian, who is much older than Xu, never got close to a multi-million dollar pay day. Xu pummeled Tian and opened a cut on the kung fu fighter’s forehead. The cut bled profusely, which prompted Tian’s corner to wrap a bandage around his head. Tian then attempted to fight the remainder of the contest with that wrapping obscuring half, if not all, of his vision.
The contest was eventually waved off when it became painfully obvious that Xu – who spent most the fight showboating – was capable of seriously injuring his opponent.
Tian’s most recent fight didn’t go much better for him. Zhang easily out struck Tian, landing punches, head kicks and spinning kicks to the body at will. Video of the fight, which was uploaded to YouTube by Fight Commentary Breakdowns, is presented below:
In the video it appears as though Zhang is somewhat pulling his punches as he leisurely avoids any offense from Tian. The only punch that seemed to land clean for Tian was a right hand thrown way after the bell. That punch didn’t do any damage and elicited a laugh from the taekwondo practitioner.
Zhang chuckled throughout the fight, as did the referee who eventually called off the contest in the third round.
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