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Chapter 388 - 355: New Rules, Female Contestants

Chapter 388: Chapter 355: New Rules, Female Contestants

On September 10th, the term "Combat World Cup" appeared on Hua Country’s trending search list.

"The Yanhuang Technique is confirmed to participate in the Combat World Cup" also made it to the trending search, and it ranked quite high.

The popularity of the Yanhuang Technique had not yet faded, and now, with public enthusiasm for martial arts at a peak, the emergence of the "Combat World Cup" naturally captured the nation’s attention.

On September 15th, it was confirmed that more than 20 countries’ martial arts events would participate in the Combat World Cup!

On September 20th, UFC announced that the registration for the first Combat World Cup had officially closed, with a total of 32 countries having formed teams to compete.

On September 21st, UFC posted the first phase of competition rules on the newly established Combat World Cup official website:

"32 national teams will be divided into eight groups, A to H, with four teams in each group, playing round-robin matches."

"The competition rules of the Combat World Cup will largely adopt those of UFC but with some changes. First, the competition venue will no longer be the Octagonal Cage, but a square ring with an area of 225 square meters. A circular pillar will be erected at each of the four corners of the ring, with no obstructions along the perimeter."

"The method of determining the winner will exclude score judgments; aside from KO and TKO, accumulating three falls from the ring will also count as a loss."

"There will be no time limits for the matches, they will continue until a victor is determined. If a competitor falls out of the ring, the match will be paused, but if they cannot return to the ring within ten seconds, they will be declared the loser."

"A win earns one point, while a loss earns none, and the team with the highest points will qualify from the group, proceeding to the top eight."

"In the round-robin matches, the battles will follow the order of Strawweight, Flyweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight, totaling seven matches. Among them, the Strawweight and Flyweight must be female fighters, while the other five matches must be male fighters."

"Each team must have at least seven members and no more than twenty. Once the list is confirmed, no changes to the roster are allowed until the World Cup concludes."

...

The first phase of the Combat World Cup rules swiftly made their way to Hua Country’s netizens, who posted them online, and the topic quickly trended, sparking heated discussions across the web:

"Isn’t this competition rule modeled after the Yanhuang Technique?"

"Why would UFC change the rules for the Combat World Cup, wouldn’t sticking to the original rules be more advantageous to them?"

"The point-scoring system should have been removed long ago! Deciding the winner of a combat sport by judges’ scoring is just too dull, and it’s prone to manipulations."

"There are even matches for female fighters – it’s really about overall strength this time, but the Yanhuang Technique doesn’t have any female competitors."

"Li Tongyun will definitely choose Zhang Weili! She’s a UFC fighter and has the qualifications to compete."

"Wow, I’m so excited! I really want to know who’s on our Hua Country Team!"

...

Meanwhile, Li Tongyun and others were studying the twenty-person roster.

Without a doubt, all twenty spots needed to be filled as injuries were inevitable in competition; they had to consider substitutes to avoid ending up with no one to field.

However, since two of the seven matches required female fighters, several places on the team had to be reserved for women. Given that the Yanhuang Technique had no female fighters, and Li Tongyun knew only a few, the only one he could think of was Zhang Weili.

The two had briefly communicated in the past because of Li San. Li Tongyun had Zhang Weili’s contact information, and after seeing the rules for the Combat World Cup, he called her to arrange a meeting in Imperial City.

At the Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall’s branch in Imperial City, Li Tongyun and the others gathered.

Li San and Zhao Lixin were sparring, as were Guo Dongyang and Gao Jianping, while Li Tongyun provided guidance on Xu Chuan and the others’ Fist techniques.

Li Tongyun planned to use this Martial Arts Hall as a temporary training base for the Hua Country Team, which was why he had arranged to meet Zhang Weili here today.

Around 10 a.m., a woman wearing sportswear and a ponytail walked into the Martial Arts Hall.

Li Tongyun was the first to notice her; he knew her identity as soon as he saw the information from the System Detection:

[Sandboxing (Master Level), Chinese wrestling (Master Level), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Expert Level), Long Arm Fist (Expert Level)]

[Overall Score: A+ (87%)]

This score was definitely Zhang Weili’s.

The Overall Score given by the system was exclusively for ring matches, scored according to Mixed Martial Arts rules, distinguishing by weight class, but not by gender.

Thus, normally, men’s scores would be one grade higher than women’s.

Zhang Weili weighed only 52KG, yet her Overall Score had reached A level. That meant, if you brought the weight down to match hers, on the ring, a bunch of male fighters would probably not stand a chance against her!

At least at the Bo Yuan Martial Arts Hall, besides Li Tongyun, Li San, and Zhao Lixin, none of the others had an Overall Score as high as Zhang Weili’s.

"Deservedly the three-time UFC Strawweight Champion!" Li Tongyun thought to himself, smiling as he approached her, "Wei Li sister."

Zhang Weili smiled brightly and gave Li Tongyun a traditional Martial Arts salute, "Haha, Li Tongyun, I’ve finally met you."

They had spoken on the phone before, but this was their first face-to-face meeting.

"Weili, please come inside."

Wu Li invited Zhang Weili into the Martial Arts Hall, and everyone inside who was sparring stopped and turned to look.

"Hello everyone," Zhang Weili waved generously and greeted everyone.

"Weili!"

"Hello, Weili."

The crowd greeted her warmly.

Wu Li led Zhang Weili to the center of the venue and announced loudly, "I don’t think this person needs any introduction. I’m sure you all recognize her. Now, I formally announce that Zhang Weili has joined our Hua Country Team and will fight alongside us in the Combat World Cup!"

"Oh!"

The crowd cheered and applauded, while Zhang Weili smiled and clasped her fists in gratitude.

"Continue your training. Weili and I need to discuss the team selection," Wu Li said and then led Zhang Weili to the rest area.

"Weili, there are two matches for female fighters in the competition, and aside from you, I don’t know any other female fighters. I’m relying on you to recommend some."

They sat down, and Wu Li got straight to the point.

Since Zhang Weili had agreed to join the Hua Country Team as soon as she received his call, she was clearly a straightforward person. Wu Li didn’t beat around the bush and directly asked for her help with selecting candidates.

Zhang Weili didn’t hesitate, "Yan Xiaonan, she’s good, also a UFC fighter. You can invite her."

Wu Li nodded; after seeing the rules of the Combat World Cup, he had immediately learned about the female fighters of Hua Country. Besides Zhang Weili, Yan Xiaonan was also competing in UFC, in the same Strawweight division, and her ranking was high—having broken into the top five three months ago.

"I don’t have any connection with Yan Xiaonan; I’m counting on you to invite her," Wu Li said to Zhang Weili.

Zhang Weili readily agreed, "Ok, I’ll talk to Xiaonan. She definitely won’t refuse such an opportunity."

Wu Li replied, "Apart from Yan Xiaonan, Weili, please recommend a few more candidates. We should at least prepare four female fighters to be safe."

Zhang Weili laughed, "Before I came here, the owner of my club had a long talk with me and made me promise to recommend several people from our club to you."

Hearing this, Wu Li also smiled, "Sure, as long as they are strong enough, I definitely won’t refuse."

Zhang Weili replied, "Then I’ll call them over. There are eight in total, all women. You choose."

Wu Li nodded, "Ok."

The owner of Zhang Weili’s club was clearly shrewd, knowing that with the Yanhuang Technique there was already a large pool of male candidates to choose from for Hua Country, and the competition for a spot was fierce. Thus, they decided to forego recommending male fighters, focusing instead on female ones.

After a short conversation with Zhang Weili, they reached an agreement, and she immediately expressed her desire to join the training. Wu Li had no reason to refuse and directed Zhang Weili to spar with Li San and others.

Just after Zhang Weili had left, Gong Juren came running up.

"Brother, Song Yidong’s agent just called looking for you."

Wu Li was momentarily taken aback but quickly guessed why the agent had contacted him.

As news of the Combat World Cup spread, many individuals had reached out to Wu Li through various connections, hoping he could give them a slot. After all, UFC had only invited Yanhuang Technique from Hua Country, and Wu Li, as the person in charge of Yanhuang Technique, had the authority to select members.

This event was generating a lot of attention, and representing Hua Country would be a chance for many fighters to make a name for themselves. Hence, many in the Martial Arts World of Hua Country were eager to join the Hua Country Team and naturally sought Wu Li for the opportunity.

Wu Li himself took the competition very seriously and didn’t have the mindset that only his people should participate.

Strength ruled; that was Wu Li’s principle.

In the time since, he had rejected anyone who didn’t meet the standards, regardless of their connections or attempts to curry favor.

In fact, given the significance of the Combat World Cup to Hua Country and Wu Li’s prior performance and current reputation—not to mention his control over the Yanhuang Technique—some higher-ups had directly told Wu Li to take full charge: so long as he could produce results, he had free rein!

Therefore, Wu Li’s stance was unshakeable; he didn’t need to save face for anyone, and he could completely make his own decisions without others daring to object. No one would cause trouble either, as doing so would be suicide.

For calls from just anyone, Wu Li wouldn’t bother too much, but Song Yidong’s agent’s call warranted a response, since Song Yidong was a skilled fighter, and Wu Li was willing to give him a chance.

Wu Li took the phone and dialed back. The call was quickly answered.

After a brief conversation with Song Yidong’s agent—who was trying to secure a spot for Song Yidong—Wu Li didn’t agree immediately but invited Song Yidong to come to Imperial City for a face-to-face discussion.

Had Song Yidong been in the Lightweight division or above, Wu Li wouldn’t even wait for him to ask and would have proactively invited the fighter, as his Overall Score was B+. However, Song Yidong was a Flyweight, and the current regulations for Flyweight only allowed female fighters, so Song Yidong would need to gain weight to compete.

Moving up from Flyweight to Lightweight meant jumping two weight classes, and Wu Li wasn’t sure if Song Yidong could handle the change. Therefore, he needed Song Yidong to come for testing.