NXT Star Competing In Amateur Kickboxing Fight This Weekend

It has crossover appeal. There are a lot of different wrestlers in WWE today and a lot of them have backgrounds in other sports. With so many different styles out there, it can be interesting to see what kinds of things you can see in a wrestling ring. On occasion you get to see someone trying something new and that is the case again with someone in NXT, who is venturing elsewhere.

The Mae Young Classic introduced a host of new wrestlers into the WWE system, many of whom are still around today. Some of them were able to get over through pure star power but there were others who got noticed because of something unique about them. NXT took notice of some of those people and kept them around. One of them is going to be trying their hand at a different sport this weekend.

NXT star Xia Li will be making her amateur kickboxing debut on Saturday at Combat Night Orlando on pay per view. Li will be fighting under her real name of Xia Zhao and facing Anna Housel. The fight will involve headgear due to it not being a professional bout and there will be two hundred fans in attendance. Li debuted in the original Mae Young Classic and has been in NXT since, including a recent story that has seen her paired with Boa.

Li has been around for a good while. Check out some of her time in NXT:

Opinion: This is certainly something different and while I’m a little bit surprised that Li is going to be able to do this while under a WWE contract, it might be something that WWE can brag about should she win. I’m not sure what kind of kickboxing skills Li has but maybe she can do something in the sport. Or maybe it’s a one off idea and something she just wants to do, which is fine as well.

What do you think of Li? How will she do in the fight? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!