Chinese mixed martial artist Shayilan Nuerdanbieke will enter the Octagon this weekend to trade blows with American fighter Steve ‘Mean Machine’ Garcia in a featherweight match at UFC 287: Pereira vs. Adesanya 2.
The upcoming UFC event will take place at Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, on April 8.
Twenty-eight-year-old Nuerdanbieke, also known as ‘Wolverine,’ is currently 39-10-0, and his bout at UFC 287 will be his fifth fight with the promotion.
Garcia’s record, meanwhile, is 13-5-0, according to UFC Stats. He won his last fight — at UFC Fight Night 213 in October 2022 — against Chase Hooper by TKO in the first round.
However, the 30-year-old American athlete’s last encounter with a Chinese fighter did not go his way: Garcia fell to Maheshate, who is affiliated with the legendary Southwest China-based Enbo Fight Club, at UFC 275.
In his battle against Garcia, Nuerdanbieke will look to follow in Maheshate’s footsteps. Earning a W against Garcia would extend Nuerdanbieke’s winning streak to four, after he bested Darrick Minner and TJ Brown in 2022 and Sean Soriano in 2021.
Nuerdanbieke is one of a growing number of Chinese mixed martial artists trying to make a name for themselves in the world’s top MMA promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC.
Like many up-and-coming Chinese fighters, Nuerdanbieke is a member of one of China’s 55 recognized ethnic minorities, the Kazakh minority of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, an area in northern Xinjiang in West China.
Other notable Chinese minority fighters in the UFC include Qiu Lun and Sumudaerji, both of whom are Tibetan.
Watch RADII’s 2022 mini-documentary Way of the Warrior to learn more about the thriving MMA scene in China:
Cover image courtesy of the UFC
