Enbo Fight Club () is a

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

(MMA) gym based in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Overview

Enbo Fight Club (originally named Aba Prefecture Sanda Club) was founded in 2001 by

En Bo En Bo (; born 1962) is a Chinese Mixed martial arts (MMA) and Sanda coach and former Sanda practitioner. He is the founder of Chinese MMA club, Enbo Fight Club. Early life En Bo was born in 1962 in Heishui County, Aba Prefecture in Sic ...

, a Chinese MMA coach and former police officer. He stated that during his time in the police, he encountered orphaned children wandering in the mountains or on the streets. As a result, after retiring from the police, he wanted to work on helping orphans. By creating a martial arts gym, they wouldn't need to turn towards crime. The gym is known to take in orphans and children from impoverished families as there are many regions in the province that have high poverty rates. Due to the gym's location, there are many members of the gym that belong to China's ethnic minority groups such as

Tibetans Tibetans () are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in t ...

, Hui, Yi and Qiang. Due to popular demand of many children applying to be members of the gym, there is a screening process for them. They will be checked for contagious diseases and if they are able to perform satisfactory in a three-month trial period. In 2015, the gym introduced MMA in its offerings and hired MMA coaches. As of 2017, the gym has over 200 members where children only comprise a small portion of its membership. The gym facilities now encompass almost 4000 square meters. The gym claims it has 100 professional athletes while some of its others members have gone on to become members of police or armed forces. In 2017,

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Vicelan ...

did a documentary on the Enbo Fight Club which featured Tibetan fighter, Banma Duoji who now fights at

ONE FC ONE Championship, formerly ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) until January 2015, is a Multinational corporation, multinational combat sports Promoter (entertainment), promotion founded on 14 July 2011 by Chatri Sityodtong and Victor Cui. Origi ...

. In July 2023, a Chinese MMA movie named " Never Say Never" was released. The setting was based on the Enbo Fight Club.

Controversies

MMA fights featuring underaged children

In 2017, a video surfaced of two 12-14-year-old boys competing in a commercial MMA bout which gained 12 million views and caused outrage in China. Shortly after the video surfaced, the police in China opened an investigation into the Enbo Fight Club. There was debate on

Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

about the fight and the gym itself. Some argue that the children in the gym were being exploited in hard conditions and dangerous fights which was done solely to earn money for the gym. Others argue that due to circumstances, the children in the gym would have been deprived of a potential future in fighting and would end up on the streets turning to a life of crime. It was noted that one of the fighters in the video said he wished to remain in the gym to pursue his dream of becoming UFC champion. Other young members of the gym shared his sentiments claiming that there was no future in going back to their hometowns.

Involvement with the People's Liberation Army

It was noted that 20 fighters from the Enbo Fight Club have been enlisted by the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

to form the "Plateau Resistance Tibetan Mastiffs" unit and would be stationed in Lhasa, Tibet. Their role would be helping provide hand-to-hand combat training to soldiers in the area. This happened shortly after the

2020–2021 China–India skirmishes Beginning on 5 May 2020, People's Liberation Army, Chinese and Indian Army, Indian troops engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs, and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and t ...

at the Sino-Indian border.

Notable fighters affiliated

* Song Yadong (UFC fighter, peak ranking 5th in

Bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports and weightlifting. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class ...

division) *

Su Mudaerji Su Mudaerji ( zh, 苏木达尔基; ; born January 20, 1996), sometimes written as Sumudaerji, is a Chinese professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Flyweight and Bantamweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship ...

(UFC fighter, peak ranking 11th in

Flyweight Flyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Flyweight is a class in boxing which includes fighters weighing up to and including 51 kg (112 lb) for a title fight. Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of boxin ...

Division) * Liu Pingyuan (UFC fighter) * Rong Zhu (UFC fighter, Road to UFC Season 2

Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

tournament winner) *Maheshate (UFC fighter, first fighter from China to win a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series) *Yi Zha (UFC fighter, Road to UFC Season 2

Featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

tournament winner)

References