Career
A professional competitor since 2007, Li mostly fought in China. Originally from a small town in the Xinjiang Province of Northwest China, Li competed in wrestling and trained in Sanda before moving to Beijing in order to pursue a career in professional mixed martial arts Li began training under the tutelage of current UFC Lightweight Zhang Tiequan.
Early career
Li made his professional debut in 2007, winning via submission due to punches in the second round.
He would go on to compile a record of 8-2, capturing the Legend Football Club Welterweight Championship in the process, before being granted his release and signed by the UFC. Ultimate Fighting Championship
Li made his promotional debut on May 24, 2014 at UFC 173 against David Michaud. Li faced Nordine Taleb on October 4, 2014 at UFC Fight Night: MacDonald versus
Saffiedine. Li was able to take Taleb down multiple times throughout the fight and even successfully land significantly more strikes as Taleb was content to counter strike throughout the bout.
In a surprising result, Taleb was given the victory by split decision. Li was expected to face Roger Zapata on May 16, 2015 at UFC Fight Night 66.
However, on April 18, it was announced that Zapata was pulled from the fight due to undisclosed reasons and replaced by Dhiego Lima. Li was expected to face Kiichi Kunimoto on September 27, 2015 at UFC Fight Night 75.
However, Kunimoto pulled out of the fight in late August citing injury and was replaced by returning veteran Keita Nakamura.
After dominating the first two rounds, Li lost the fight via technical submission in the third round. Legend Fighting Championship
Legend Football Club Welterweight Championship (One time).
