The winter in Liaocheng is so cold that it can crack bones. Sixteen-year-old Xiang Yunsheng squatted in the corridor of the mining area hospital, clutching his father's CT report sheet - silicosis, stage three - in his hand.
The miner's lamp went out, and it was up to him to support the family.
Without any fighting skills and only a body that could withstand a fight, the young man walked into an underground boxing gym and used his fists to earn his first drug fee. From amateur matches in broken auditoriums in the mining area to provincial teams, national championships, and intercontinental gold belts - he knocked down opponents all the way, and was knocked down and got up again by life along the way.
When everyone thought he would settle for the boxing title, he made a crazy decision: cross over to fight MMA.
"The boxing world calls me a sideshow, and the MMA world calls me a traitor. All I know is that fists are fists, regardless of rules."
