Soberano teaches some of the daily classes in his two gyms. Wang Jing / China Daily

From star student to Shanghai Citizen

Journey of a lifetime

Yet when people heard of Soberano's China game plan, everyone asked him the same thing: You plan to pioneer a martial art in the land that gave the world kung fu?

Although both Chinese martial arts and MMA teach fighting styles, the latter developed as a sport. And as its name indicates, mixed martial arts incorporates a variety of fighting forms, such as boxing, muay Thai and Brazilian jujitsu, to build up a fighter's combat arsenal.

Soberano's road to MMA began with muay Thai, which he discovered on a visit to Bangkok at age 10. As a boy who was lousy at sports, such as basketball, volleyball and soccer, which were popular among his Filipino peers, he was immediately drawn to the solitary and elemental nature of Thailand's national sport.

Besides punching with gloves, muay Thai, or Thai boxing, also allows fighters to kick, elbow and knee their opponents.

"I just remember it sunk in: 'I love this. This is what I wanna do'," Soberano says. "It was the contact. It was the ferocity of the sport. I've seen so many martial arts, and they all look great. People jump in the air, doing stuff, but no one hits as hard as in muay Thai."

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