Zhang Lipeng is confident that fellow Chinese fighter Lin Heqin can break into the ONE women’s atomweight rankings soon.
That said, ‘The Warrior,’ who is preparing to take on Ruslan Emilbek Uulu at ONE: Only the Brave on Friday, January 28, suggests that the 28-year-old star must improve her all-around abilities if she wants to threaten the promotion’s stacked 52.2kg weight class.
Zhang told ONE:
“I think she trains very hard, and her stand-up game is very strong in the [atomweight] division. But the weakness is also very obvious: her wrestling and ground game isn’t strong enough. But if she can improve them, it’s not impossible for her to enter the top-five rankings.”
Zhang has 31 wins in his career and has forced 13 opponents to tap to his grappling prowess, while nine other athletes have felt the power in his hands.
He understands what it takes to be at the very top of the sport and recognizes that Lin has all the necessary traits to become a global superstar.
The pair shared a training camp at Phuket Top Team last year when the lightweight was getting ready for his ONE debut against Eduard ‘Landslide’ Folayang. At the time, Lin was preparing to face Ritu Phogat.
In an interview with ONE last year, Lin also had only nice things to say about the Chinese fighter. The atomweight star described him as a training partner who offered her a lot of tricks in the grappling department.
Zhang Lipeng’s huge plans in ONE Championship
After closing out his debut outing in ONE with a dominant win over former lightweight king Folayang, Zhang is eager to show the organization why they struck a good deal when they signed him in June last year.
The Chinese star wants to fight for ONE gold at some point in the near future. However, for now, he remains focused on the path to a world title shot.
“Of course, I was very happy to win my ONE debut against a former champ. The first bout is definitely very important and it also shows my real skill level to ONE‘s boss. But the follow-up bouts are more important. I still have to keep winning because getting into the top-five [rankings] and then finally winning the championship is what I plan for the future in my career.”
Tune in to ONE: Only the Brave this Friday to see if he can have his hand raised again.
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