That spell was deemed 'the darkest moment of my life' by Zhang, but one day, Cai Xuejun, her subsequent agent and current business partner, helped her get out. She stopped fighting completely and coached part-time to pay her bills. Spurred on by the loss, she resigned from her gym job to to focus on fighting full time - but then fate got involved again, and she got another severe injury to her waist. 'Since then, I've developed an awareness for finishing the game by myself.' 'It was my first MMA match, and it was stopped too early by referee,' she said. In 2014, Zhang Weili signed with China MMA League and faced Meng Bo in a fight that, so far, is the only loss in her MMA career. This double life of being a fighter in the morning and gym staff in the afternoon was caused by the poor payments for primary fighters. In the two years after that moment, Weili did two hours of MMA training every morning at the China Top Team (CTT) club before commuting to her working gym to be on duty at 1:00 p.m. She struggled through this time of instability but managed to stay focused and self-disciplined, and she remained committed to basic training. In her early 20s, she worked as a supermarket cashier, kindergarten teacher, hotel desk clerk and took many part-time jobs to make a living in the capital city. They suggested she should learn hairdressing, but that didn't suit her competitive personality, so they allowed the 17-year-old girl to go to Beijing and looking for other opportunities. Her parents knew how hard she had worked for her martial arts dream, and sincerely hoped she could continue her sanda career, but her injury dashed the hope of whole family. However, it was neglected by an unprofessional doctor, and it forced her to quit her fight career, meaning she had to drop out of the national competition even though she was already registered - an incident that caused deep regret. Now, when Zhang thinks back, she believes her injury was not that serious and could have been easily cured if the medical staff = had used some advanced methods. After winning the Hebei Province sanda championship several times, she was selected by the Jiangsu Province sanda team, but got severely injured two years later.

Kung fu fighter #2