On May 21st, Alisports, the sports arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced the launch of a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event—Jing Wu Men.

As stated in media reports, this move is part of Alisports’ partnership with the Kung fu film actor Jet Li and Healthmall (Chinese:健康猫), a Guangzhou-based mobile internet company.

The partnership will become an integration of Healthmall’s Olympic talents, Alibaba’s webcasting platform and Jet Li’s global popularity. The event is a series consisting of 34-stop bouts and the first bout will kick off this September.

As Alisports COO Yu Xingyu said, “The partnership with Healthmall and Mr. Jet Li will become a perfect opportunity for us to promote the virtue of Kung fu among Chinese young people.”

Dong Songyuan, on behalf of Jet Li, stated that Mr. Li sees this co-operation as the first step in expanding this Chinese-owned intellectual property into the international market.

Source: China.com.cn

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin