Xiong Jingnan: The "desire" of the champion

The word "defending" is an absolutely high-frequency word in Xiong Jingnan's personal entry, from winning consecutive wins in boxing matches when he was young, to now preparing to defend his title for the seventh time in the headline main match of ONE Fighting Night on October 1, "Kung Fu Panda" Xiong Jingnan has already changed from a strength boxer to a calm and comprehensive mixed martial artist, and she is undoubtedly the most dominant queen in the boxing ring. Desire is the upward force, and in this ring where pain is exchanged for victory, the female boxer broke through the bamboo from the shores of Weishan Lake in Jining, Shandong Province, and played the "strongest match" in the cage, saying, "I want that champion gold belt, for which I am ready to defeat anyone who stands in my way." For the beloved MMA, even die in the ring. ”

This will be three battles between Xiong Jingnan and his old enemy Li Shengzhu.

On March 31, 2019, in the ONE: Age of Innovation, Xiong Jingnan faced Li Shengzhu for the first time, and that night, Xiong Jingnan escaped from Li Shengzhu's surrender arrangement several times, and finally achieved a reversal in the fifth round TKO Li Shengzhu, "sharp and unbelievable" was blocked in front of the tenacious desire to win. Confrontation, persistence, tears, faith, only this battle, is destined to be remembered in the boxing ring.

Xiong Jingnan admitted, "In the fourth round, her triangular stranding and cross solids have been done very hard and fast, especially the triangular buckle, which makes it very difficult for me to breathe. The word "cross" often appears at the same time as the word "death." This judo technique, which uses the body as a lever to control the limbs of the other party, once formed, cannot be shaken off for convenience. Triangular stranding, on the other hand, is an effective act of compressing the blood vessels on the side of the neck and can subdue the opponent in a very short time due to restricting the flow of blood from the carotid artery to the brain.

Almost suffocating 2 minutes. Xiong Jingnan's arm was bent several times, and he could fracture at any time. The on-site narrator exclaimed, "She already had tears in her eyes." However, the triangle buckle and the cross were unable to strangle Xiong Jingnan's will, and the extremely rare reversal was actually staged in the cage.

She said after the game that even if her opponent broke her arm, she would not concede defeat. "Actually, I knew at the time that both of these were deadlocks, but I really couldn't give up. I really thought, 'Xiong Jingnan, you can't lose, you can't lose China's golden belt'. ”

No matter how deadly the triangle and the cross solid, it will not be able to surrender a heart that longs for victory.

Six months later, the second battle between the two began in the Tokyo battlefield, Xiong Jingnan descended to the atomic level, fought with Li Shengzhu for 5 rounds again, and was reversed and surrendered by his defeated Li Shengzhu in the last 15 seconds, missing China's first MMA double-level women's world championship. It was also Xiong Jingnan's only defeat in the ONE Championship.

But as Xiong Jingnan wrote on Weibo, the ship was not built for the calm small waves in the harbor, but for the storms in the sea.

Xiong Jingnan was 25 years old when she was exposed to mixed martial arts, and before that, she had won several medals in provincial and national competitions as a professional boxer "within the system".

Embracing the unknown is Xiong Jingnan's own choice. In 2013, she climbed out of the school gate at four o'clock in the morning and got on a bus bound for Beijing. With trepidation, she officially stepped into the fighting arena. In her view, mixed martial arts is an all-encompassing sport, "It's not like boxing and sanda have some limitations, this sport is just for me." ”

"But the pain of just changing careers is far beyond imagination." In Xiong Jingnan's recollection, in addition to overcoming the uncertainty caused by giving up a stable income, it is more difficult to survive injuries. When she first started practicing MMA, she was injured one after another in training, "During those days, I ran to the hospital all day to shoot films. I insisted on practicing four times a day, one class in the morning and one in the afternoon, and two classes in the evening. Either I will practice until I die, and as long as I don't die, sooner or later I will beat them all back. ”

"I can practice anything, I can adapt quickly." From "adaptation" to "ability" is the underlying logic of Xiong Jingnan's thinking, and under this, it is her instinctive desire to win. Start with weightlifting, switch to boxing, and then step into the mixed martial arts arena. From beginning to end, Xiong Jingnan asked himself to "do the best".

Self-discipline is a higher desire. Home and boxing gym two points and one line of life, she has been 17 years. "My daily life is so simple, so simple that I find it terrible myself." She understood that while proper entertainment would relax her spirit, the urgency of time and age kept her on guard.

It is often said that a generation is old, but someone is always young. Many of the boxers who walked into the ring with Xiong Jingnan are now long retired. Age is often more cruel to athletes, who have the full potential to end their careers earlier than the average person.

"Time is moving forward day by day, age is getting older and I don't have much time for myself." Xiong Jingnan once admitted in an interview, "The sport of mixed martial arts is compared to your age, your body and your physical fitness. I really can't resist the old. You may be telling yourself 'I can't' in my heart, but my body is telling you honestly 'no'. So I want to learn more and play more games when I can still play. For Xiong Jingnan, who has changed careers at an "advanced age", the only way for her to fight against the laws of nature is to continue with cruel training in exchange for the opportunity to step into the boxing ring.

However, the so-called success is to exchange the most expensive for the most precious.

In 2015, Xiong Jingnan called home to announce the good news after a cage fight, but received unexpected news. "While I was preparing for that competition, my grandparents died and my whole family hid from me. Until the referee raised my hand, I didn't know I had lost my grandparents. ”

The grief of losing a loved one has not yet dissipated, and Xiong Jingnan was accidentally injured in a training session, and his lower body was almost paralyzed. "My training volume has always been higher than theirs, with toe fractures, rib fractures, cervical displacements, arm injuries, which is common for me, almost every minute is training with injuries. However, that time, I really felt the teasing of life. In those days, crutches and wheelchairs replaced her legs and arms, and doctors said that she may have difficulty moving normally in the future, and wavering thoughts inevitably appeared in Xiong Jingnan's mind.

"Your body can resist almost anything. What you have to convince is your thoughts. I told myself that you must do what others don't want to do today so that you can have something tomorrow that no one else has. Ten months later, Xiong Jingnan returned to the ring and "reopened his path in the midst of countless obstacles", and in her dictionary, there is no longer the word "give up". In 2017, Xiong Jingnan signed a contract for the ONE Championship by setting a record of eight consecutive wins in the ring of a major domestic fighting event.

On January 20, 2018, in the main match of the ONE Championship King Fearless Headlines held in the Indonesian capital, Xiong Jingnan defeated Singapore's Zhang Huiwen with consecutive heavy punches. "I Xiong Jingnan finally did it", she was held high by the referee with her left hand draped in the national flag, which was the first time that a Chinese player stood in the world championship position in the fighting arena.

While everyone outside the stadium was cheering, Xiong Jingnan said, "The moment I stepped off the stage, it was another zero beginning." Victory is only the first half, and the road ahead will continue. ”

When she gets the gold belt, she can be proud, but she must not be proud. Since then, she has defended her title six times. Consecutive defeats against Argentine "surrender expert" Laura Bahrain, Brazilian famous wrestler Samara Santos, "Women's Jiu-Jitsu Ceiling" Michel Nicolini and Japanese judo master "Zombie" Miura Saika, constantly breaking the women's world championship defense record set by themselves.

However, after defeating the "zombie" Miura Caijia, Xiong Jingnan was criticized by ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Seyudo, "She played the safety card, very careful, this is not her nature as an athlete." She lacks the desire for an end and does not show her determination to bravely attack at all costs. "Must be perfect" is Xiong Jingnan's request to herself, and the pressure to defend her title makes it impossible for her to "desperately". In her view, the golden belt not only represents herself, but also represents China's strength and honor, "we must do our best to protect it." ”

In July 2022, in an interview, Xiong Jingnan said that he planned to march to the atomic weight class, and was very happy to compete with the atomic weight world eight-man champion Stimp, and also said that he was always ready to fight with Li Shengzhu.

"I've always had that idea, I've been working towards the goal of being a grass and atomic-weight double champion, and that has never changed," she said. "With the announcement of the ONE Fighting Night 2 major tournament card schedule on October 1. Xiong Jingnan got his wish and will fight three battles against Singaporean boxer Lee Seung-joo from a martial arts family in a round cage.

"I see the change in Li Shengzhu now, she has a stronger motivation to fight after becoming a mother. I've also become more mature, both mentalistically and technically on the ground. This game we will all show their progress and growth. ”

After three years, the old enemy reunited in the cage, Xiong Jingnan said that it does not matter who the opponent is, she just needs to be herself. "Just fight, all I want is to win."