Top 10 most popular MMA stories of the year 2019
- Mixed martial arts has emerged as one of the SCMP Sport’s most-read topics this year
- Wing chun vs MMA craze and UFC back-and-forths clear favourites
Mixed martial arts (MMA) has emerged as one of the Post's most popular topics of the year as the sport continues to flirt with mainstream culture around the world.
From Wing Chun masters being knocked out by professional MMA fighters; to Hollywood star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson picking Nate Diaz over Jorge Masvidal for the “BMF” belt; to One Championship's Sage Northcutt blasting the UFC's Dana White for telling him to retire, it has been yet another roller-coaster year in the fight game – and fans would not have it any other way.
From least to most, the following is our top 10 most popular MMA stories of the year. Stories under the same event or theme – such as those from the Masvidal vs Diaz BMF belt narrative – were not included for the sake of avoiding repetition. That is definitely not to say we do not want a BMF sequel, though.
10. Wing chun 'master' Ding Hao challenges Xu Xiaodong to rematch - 'he is afraid of my punches'
Who does not love a deluded traditional martial arts master to close the show? Ding Hao, who calls himself one of the nation's greatest wing chun practitioners, called out Chinese MMA fighter and traditional martial arts-exposer Xu Xiaodong.
Most fascinating is that Ding fought Xu a year earlier – and it went just like every other wing chun master vs MMA fighter video you saw this year. Xu knocked Ding down four times before the referee stopped the fight. Yet Ding insists it is his opponent that is running scared now.
