Louis Smolka will make his return to the Octagon at Saturday’s UFC Beijing, and it will be a historical moment for the man standing across the cage from him.
Su Mudaerji, relatively an unknown fighter even for a hardcore MMA fan, became the first Tibetan athlete to sign a deal with the promotion. In fact, he was so unknown that even UFC.com had his name is incorrectly listed as “Sumudaerji Sumudaerji” until days before the event.
”My name is Su Mudaerji, I’m sure you’ve never heard a name like that before [laughs],” Mudaerji told MMA Fighting through a translator, “but it’s a name from the Aba region in Sichuan.