Zhang Weili is a Chinese mixed martial artist born on September 30, 1990, in Handan, Hebei province. She fights in the UFC’s women’s strawweight division and is widely regarded as the most successful Chinese athlete in mixed martial arts history, having become the first fighter from China to win a UFC championship. Her father is a retired coal miner and her mother a housewife, and her older brother left his own job as a gold trader to help fund her early fighting career, details documented on Wikipedia.

Zhang first trained in Shaolin kung fu at age six after being inspired by martial arts films, then moved into sanda kickboxing and shuai jiao wrestling at a specialized sports school from age twelve, winning multiple provincial sanda titles in Hebei before a recurring back injury forced her to step away from competitive martial arts as a teenager.

At seventeen, Zhang left home for Beijing and worked a string of jobs to support herself, including supermarket cashier, kindergarten teacher, security guard and hotel clerk, before becoming a fitness instructor at a Beijing gym in 2010. It was there, picking up Brazilian jiu-jitsu by watching other members train after hours, that she caught the attention of coach Cai Xuejun, who began training her for MMA around 2012.

Zhang turned professional in 2013 and lost her debut fight, then won eleven consecutive bouts on the Chinese regional circuit. She captured the Kunlun Fight women’s strawweight championship in May 2017 and added the Top FC strawweight title two months later, building the unbeaten regional run that ultimately earned her a UFC contract.

Zhang made history on August 31, 2019, stopping Jessica Andrade by TKO in just 42 seconds to become the first fighter from China to win a UFC title, taking the women’s strawweight championship in one of the fastest title winning finishes in UFC history. The win instantly made her one of the most searched athletes in China and turned her into a genuine crossover star.

In the buildup to her first title defense, Zhang became the most talked about subject on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, a platform with roughly 400 million users at the time, while her personal following swelled past a million on Weibo, a surge in reach documented by the South China Morning Post. She has said fans recognized her even at the airport while she was wrapped in a full protective travel suit during the pandemic.

Zhang defended her first title reign with a split decision win over Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 in March 2020, a five round fight widely regarded as one of the greatest in women’s MMA history, before losing the belt to Rose Namajunas in April 2021 and again in a rematch that November. She rebuilt her case with a spinning backfist knockout of Jedrzejczyk in June 2022, then reclaimed the title by submitting Carla Esparza in November 2022 to begin a second reign as champion.

She went on to defend the belt against Amanda Lemos, Yan Xiaonan and Tatiana Suarez, with her February 2025 win over Suarez at UFC 312 making her, per The Sports Rush, the first UFC women’s fighter over the age of 35 to successfully defend a title against a younger opponent. She vacated the strawweight title in October 2025 with a professional record of 26 wins and 4 losses.

Zhang topped the Forbes China Celebrity List as the country’s most valuable athlete, a ranking reported by the South China Morning Post, cementing her position as China’s highest profile combat sports star by a wide margin. Her March 2020 fight with Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 is remembered across the sport as one of the greatest women’s title fights ever contested.

That fight was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame’s Fight Wing as part of the class of 2026, the first women’s bout ever honored in that wing, an announcement made during the UFC 326 broadcast and covered by CBS Sports. UFC president Dana White called it a fight between “two talented savages that wanted the strawweight title more than anything,” underscoring how the bout elevated both women’s standing in the sport.

Zhang became a global brand ambassador for Estee Lauder’s Double Wear cosmetics line in 2020, one of the most prominent endorsement deals held by any Chinese athlete, and has also carried partnerships with recovery technology brand Hyperice and sportswear company Under Armour, along with a 2021 commercial appearance for Audi in China, deals outlined by EssentiallySports.

In China specifically, reporting from Surprise Sports links Zhang to additional domestic partnerships with major consumer brands including Xiaomi, Li-Ning and JD.com, reflecting the scale of her commercial appeal at home even though the exact value of these Chinese endorsement deals has not been made public.

Unlike some champions who build separate companies or hold equity stakes alongside their fighting careers, Zhang has not publicly disclosed any standalone business, franchise or ownership venture outside of her MMA earnings and endorsement work. Her income is generated almost entirely through UFC fight purses and brand partnerships rather than outside enterprises.

Financial reporting on her career, including a 2026 profile from Surprise Sports, focuses exclusively on fight earnings and sponsorship income when accounting for her wealth, with no mention of any separate business holdings, reflecting how her commercial activity in China runs primarily through ambassador and endorsement deals rather than founder or ownership stakes.

Zhang has not disclosed any real estate holdings, vehicles or other major personal assets to the public, and unlike many UFC champions who showcase homes or cars on social media, she has kept this side of her life almost entirely private.

FirstSportz notes that “most UFC stars never reveal where they live,” adding that Zhang has kept her own living situation private while training primarily in China. No reliable public record of specific property or asset ownership exists for her at this time.