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Exclusive: Paradigm has signed actor and UFC champion Zhang Weili for representation in all areas.

Weili is a two-time UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion who became the first fighter born in China to win a UFC title in 2019 when she defeated Jessica Andrade in 42 seconds. She earned the title a second time in 2022 after defeating Carla Esparza.

She has headlined some of the UFC’s most celebrated events, including UFC 300 and her five-round battle with Joanna Jędrzejczyk. As a fighter, she is notable for her relentless pace, elite precision, and toughness.

Weili may next face Valentina Shevchenko in a champion vs. champion superfight, officially in negotiations by UFC leadership. The bout stands to bring together two of the most accomplished fighters in Mma with a win that would give Weili a second UFC title.

Beyond the octagon, Weili continues to expand her presence in global media and entertainment. She starred in After Typhoon,...

Quick LinksThe Lily Can Play on The Karate Kid's Feminist EdgeThe Lily Can Lean Into Thailand's Culture

The following contains spoilers for The Lily, which was screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Among the popular combat franchises, The Karate Kid movies rank high as being one of the best. They are tailored more towards teenagers than the Rocky movies, which is why Netflix has seen success with the Cobra Kai series.

This led to some franchises over the years trying to evolve and outdo the story of Daniel Larusso and Mr. Miyagi. Never Back Down is a solid example. But nothing could recapture the authenticity and nuances of their story. There is, however, one movie that could accomplish this, but it has to be more than just just 14 minutes long: The Lily.

The Lily Can Play on The Karate Kid's Feminist Edge The Lily Has Female Muay Thai...

Will du Plessis cement his dominance over Strickland, or will the tables be turned?

It’s time to enter the octagon once again. UFC 312 starts on Saturday, Feb. 8, with the early preliminary rounds at 4 p.m. on Disney+ and ESPN+, prelims at 6 p.m. on ESPN2, Disney+, and ESPN+, and the main card culminating in a rematch between Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland at 8 p.m. on ESPN+ pay-per-view. A middleweight championship belt will be on the line, and viewers can get the pay-per-view for the standard rate of $80 once they’re subscribed to ESPN+.

How to watch UFC 312, du Plessis vs. Strickland 2 When: Early prelims start at 4 p.m. Et on Saturday, Feb. 8 | Prelims start at 6 p.m. | Main card starts at 8 p.m. TV: ESPN2, Disney+, ESPN+ Stream: Watch via pay-per-view with a subscription to ESPN+. From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a Vpn. Watch UFC...

For the first time since the launch of the First International Film Festival in 2006, the Chinese fest’s jury has decided not to award the Best Film prize.

“The function of the festival is to call out those pioneering works, to discover those who step into higher stages, and to honour those who have made their mark on the future,” said the jury, headed by Cannes Un Certain Regard winner and Black Dog director Guan Hu.

“Looking at the creative ecology of this year’s vision, we can see good rather than outstanding, stable rather than groundbreaking. Therefore, the jury committee have decided to leave the honour of best narrative feature vacant.”

The festival is held in the city of Xining, located on the Tibetan Plateau.

The Grand Jury Prize went to Chen Yanbin’s Sailing Song of June, which is set in a small town in the mountainous southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou.

At the awards ceremony of China’s First International Film Festival (Fiff) on Sunday (July 28), the coveted best narrative film prize went unclaimed due to a lack of “outstanding” or “groundbreaking” titles in competition.

It marks the first time since the launch of the festival in 2006, held high on the Tibetan Plateau in the city of Xining, that the award has failed to be won.

The jury, led by Black Dog director Guan Hu, said in a statement: “The function of the festival is to call out those pioneering works, to discover those who step into higher stages, and to...

Chanel the French luxury goods group was this week the prominent sponsor of First Frame, a section of the First International Film Festival in Xining, China.

That’s a bold move considering Chinese authorities’ cautious official positions on feminism, sexual violence. But one that may put the group on the right side of history in the long run. And it may also be justified by the strength of the selected films, which were widely praised.

The section, operated this year for the fourth time, puts its non-exclusionary focus on stories about women by filmmakers of all genders.

According to Chanel, the brand wants to “encourage filmmakers to write about women and introduce more decent female stories to the public.” The 15 films in the section’s program covered a wide range of women’s perspectives; their pain, struggles, thoughts, emotions and relationships.

Zhao Jiayi, the lead actor in “Last Casting Call,...

Director Linglingling admits to at first to being surprised when she learned her debut feature, Unknown Species, had been chosen for the First Frame competition at this year’s First International Film Festival.

After all, she says, the film — a languid reflection on life as a modern single mother— was shot on a shoe-string budget over three days, with a cast drawn from friends in the artistic hub of Songzhuang, in the north of the capital Beijing.

Speaking from the sidelines of China’s leading annual independent cinema community’s gathering — held in central Xining, in the shadows of the Tibetan plateau — the director said the film grew out of a community that was “passionate about creating.”

“Most of the key contributors were friends who helped for free — some were artists, some were salaried workers and some were students,” she says. “I am not formally trained in filmmaking, but I love storytelling.

Surprises are expected at the First International Film Festival, given its role as China’s leading gathering for cutting-edge independent cinema.

But no one saw Sunday night coming.

When it came time to announce the festival’s top Best feature film, the First jury — led by Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Guan Hu (Black Dog) — left jaws dropping inside Xining’s Qinghai Grand Theater when they said they’d decided against naming one at all.

“The duty of film festival is to call for pioneering and cutting-edge works, to discover those who have set foot on the shores of the future and to honor creators who renew dogma through aesthetics and excavate new worlds through practice,” the jury statement read.

“Reviewing this year’s filmmaking landscape, there is ample diversity but no single outstanding work; many have steadily advanced, yet there is a lack of those who have raised new horizons.

Basketball star Caitlin Clark, whose stellar year included breaking an NCAA scoring record and becoming the first pick the WNBA draft, leads all athletes with three nominations for the 2024 Espy Awards that were unveiled Wednesday.

Clark is nommed in three categories: Record-Breaking Performance for her NCAA feat, Best College Athlete, Women’s Sports and in the marquee Best Athlete, Women’s Sports, where she is joined by U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff, two-time major golf champion Nelly Korda and WNBA star A’ja Wilson.

In the race for Best Athlete, Men’s Sports, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes returns to defend his 2023 Espy win in the category after leading the Chiefs to their second Super Bowl win in a row this year. Other nominees include the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid and Masters winner Scottie Scheffler.

Mahomes and Ohtani are looking for their second career wins in that category,...

Simone Biles, Jaylen Brown, Caitlin Clark, Coco Gauff, Patrick Mahomes and Shohei Ohtani are among the top nominees for the 2024 Espy Awards.

The winners will be announced at the July 11 ceremony, which will be hosted by Serena Williams and broadcast live at 8 p.m. Et/Pt on July 11 from Los Angeles.

NFL quarterback Mahomes and MLB star Ohtani will compete for best athlete in men’s sports, along with golfer Scott Scheffler and hockey pro Connor McDavid. If Mahomes or Ohtani win, they’ll join LeBron James, Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods as the only athletes to win the category multiple times.

College basketball star Clark and tennis pro Gauff will vie for best athlete in women’s sports, along with golfer Nelly Korda and WNBA star A’ja Wilson.

The ESPYs will once again hand out a trio of special honors — the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage Award, the Jimmy...

Officially, Yao Chen was a part of the team judging the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival’s Projects initiative for in-development productions, but the actress-producer freely admits she came to town keen — as ever — to take on as many roles as possible.

Yao was also actively seeking out production opportunities for her Bad Rabbit Pictures, as well as possible acting turns for herself. And she was looking for talent to work with in the future.

Yao’s career has been built on such hits as 2018’s Lost, Found, the wildly successful TV series All Is Well (2019), and the critically acclaimed feature Send Me to the Clouds (2019). Her social media community has hovered around the 100 million followers mark. She arrived in town having recently finished shooting her latest film, the Li Yu-directed After Typhoon, a female-led, against-the-elements drama is that is already capturing attention in China because which features the...

Fight fans, Saturday, April 13 will be a night that you won’t want to miss. The historic UFC 300 will take place where it all began in Las Vegas and will feature 12 current and former UFC champions, a Boxing Hall of Famer, and a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist. Three titles will be on the line, including the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship as Alex Pereira will defend his belt against Jamahal Hill in the main event, while Yan Xiaonan will look to take Zhang Weili’s UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship in the co-main event. You can watch the entire event with a subscription to ESPN+ and by purchasing the PPV for $79.99.

How to Watch UFC 300: Pereira vs. Hill When: Saturday, April 13 | Early Prelims: 6 p.m. Et | Prelims: 8 p.m. Et | Main Card: 10 p.m. Et Where: ESPN+: Entire card | ESPN+: Early Prelims | ESPN+, ESPN, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes: Prelims...

UFC returns to Boston, Ma at the Td Garden for UFC 292. The main event features UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling as he takes on popular fighter “Sugar” Sean O’Malley and his trademark brightly-colored hair. This will be O’Malley’s first title fight and he intends to leave Massachusetts as champion. UFC 292 airs this Saturday, Aug. 19 at 6:30 p.m. Et on ESPN+, with prelims airing on ESPN. You can watch the action with a 5-Day Free Trial of Directv Stream and by purchasing the PPV for $79.99.

How to Watch UFC 292 When: Saturday, Aug. 19 | Early Prelims: 6:30 p.m. Et | Prelims: 8 p.m. Et | Main Card: 10 p.m. Et Where: ESPN+: Entire card | ESPN: prelims only Streaming: Get the fight by subscribing to ESPN+ and purchasing the PPV for $79.99. About UFC 292

Sterling has won his past nine fights, four of which were title fights. His most recent title defense...

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Quick Answer: You can watch UFC 292 on the U.K.’s BT Sport using a Vpn (and avoid paying the PPV fee), or you can watch UFC 292 by buying the PPV livestream on ESPN+.

Buy UFC 292 PPV $79.99

UFC is heading to Boston tonight for a doubleheader event, culminating in a battle between bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and rising star Sean O’Malley.

If you’re unable to make it...

John Wick: Chapter 4 is marking yet another chance for the West to get to know Donnie Yen, one of Asia’s top leading men. He has already been in several other major Hollywood franchises. He played the scene-stealing Force-sensitive blind master Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the lure for the Asian market role in XXX: Return of Xander Cage, and Commander Tung in the Disney live-action flop, Mulan. However, in that same period when these Hollywood films came out, Yen made 10 of his own Asian-produced films where he was the leading man.

Action films are Yen’s specialty, so Yen’s inclusion in John Wick is a perfect fit. His mother is Grandmaster Bow Sim Mark, a pioneer in the global dissemination of Wushu. Wushu is a flamboyant acrobatic style of Kung Fu, designed for competition. It’s the same style that produced Jet Li along...

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UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has a daunting night ahead of him, as the white-hot Alex Pereira looks to take home his first UFC belt at UFC 281. To make things more interesting, Adesanya and Pereira have met twice before in professional kickboxing matches — and Pereira won both times.

Related: How to Watch UFC Fight Night Online

Needless to say, UFC 281 is shaping up to be a blockbuster. Read...

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is stunning in a hot pink bikini. Pic credit: @joannajedrzejczyk/Instagram

Retired UFC fighter Joanna Jedrzejczyk is wrapping up a summer vacation as she sounded poolside and has some fun in the sun.

The 34-year-old fighter retired after a knock-out loss in June, looking to preserve some of her health and focus on being a businesswoman and mother.

As she spends time with her family and focuses on advertising her dietary supplements, Mylabs, Joanna has been all over the place, including Las Vegas and several stops in Europe, such as London, Greece, Hungary, and Poland.

She took to Instagram on Tuesday to share her morning workout, where she got up bright and early and started off with about 20 minutes of cardio before she decided to hit the pool.

Taking to her Instagram Stories later that day, she shared some shots of herself right beside the pool as she...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

This weekend’s UFC 275 event will be a hotly-contested affair with two championship belts on the line and an epic rematch of one of the biggest fights in recent memory.

Glover Teixeira takes on Jiri Prochazka for the Light Heavyweight Championship, while it’s Valentina Shevchenko vs. Thalia Santos for the women’s flyweight belt. All eyes will also be on Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk, with the Zhang vs.