Last April Xu Xiaodong, a 40-year-old Beijing based mixed martial arts fighter and coach, became famous overnight after footage of him fighting Tai Chi master Wei Lei went viral. In the footage, which was shot in a gym in Chengdu, Xu battered Wei, knocking him out in ten seconds.
The fight was a result of an internet beef between Xu and Wei, which had played out over Chinese social media platform Weibo. The two had been arguing about the value of traditional martial arts and whether it was an appropriate system of self defense. The argument eventually turned into a challenge to see if Wei’s Tai Chi could beat Xu’s MMA.