Under the agreement, UFC will serve as the Official High Performance Advisor to the Chinese Olympic Committee, while the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai will serve as the committee’s Official High Performance Training Center.
UFC will provide a variety of high performance physical and rehabilitation services to Chinese athletes, with a focus on strength and conditioning, sports science, physical therapy and nutrition. UFC will offer its training philosophies, techniques, and use of its facility’s state-of-the-art equipment, all supervised and administered by UFC’s staff of sports performance professionals.
“Enhancing physical training and making up for the weakness in physical strength is the foundation of preparation for the Olympics. We are delighted to work with the UFC and send elite athletes to the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai to take part in physical and recovery training. We hope UFC’s scientific training system provides help for Chinese athletes to prepare for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.” – COC office of preparation.
“UFC is proud to partner with the Chinese Olympic Committee and be a valuable resource for their athletes,” said Kevin Chang, Senior Vice President, UFC Asia-Pacific. “UFC built this facility to demonstrate its strong commitment to China and to serve elite-level athletes who want to develop their skills and achieve excellence in their respective sports. This partnership is a model for how we want to serve the athletic community in Asia going forward.”
“The larger ambition of the UFC Performance Institute is to be a global leader in high performance across all sports, not just MMA,” said Duncan French, Vice President, Performance, UFC Performance Institute. “While our core mission continues to be to support UFC athletes, we have the resources and expertise to be a difference maker to elite athletes who want to optimize their approach to competition preparation and recovery. We plan to use our staff experts in both our Las Vegas and Shanghai facilities to apply their knowledge and experience to help Chinese Olympians reach their full potential.”
UFC will provide Chinese athletes with a comprehensive portfolio of services, including:
- Customized training, nutrition, and supplementation plans
- World-class, daily coaching in strength and conditioning, sports science, and physical therapy
- World-leading diagnostic capabilities that will evaluate performance standards
- Comprehensive assessment of body composition and metabolic rate
- Access to comprehensive medical and manual therapy services with world-leading practitioners
- Access to medical services for rehabilitation, maintenance, and/or preventative therapies
- Access to comprehensive recovery capabilities, including cryotherapy, hydrotherapy, compression, laser, and other modalities.
Prior to officially announcing this new agreement, UFC and the Chinese Olympic Committee had collaborated for the past 18 months on training a selection of China’s national teams representing sports such as cycling, judo, rowing, sailing, speed skating, swimming, track & field, wind surfing, and wrestling.
UFC opened the Performance Institute Shanghai in June 2019. At 93,000 square feet, it is the world’s largest MMA training and development facility and nearly three times as large as the original UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. It serves as UFC’s headquarters in Asia and as a hub to develop and support the next generation of MMA athletes from mainland China and the greater Asia-Pacific region.
UFC’s first Performance Institute opened in Las Vegas in 2017 as the world’s first Mixed Martial Arts multi-disciplinary research, innovation, and training center. Through the first three years of operation, over 400 athletes on UFC’s roster have utilized the facility and the services provided remotely. In addition, more than 100 NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and Olympic sports athletes have visited the facility for support during their off-season training.
