[1] In 1996, he entered Beijing Shichahai Sports School [zh], where he was trained in sanshou and boxing under Mei Huizhi (梅惠志) and Zhang Xingzheng (张兴正).
[8][9][10] After the fight went viral, there was significant blowback on social media where he was accused of disparaging Chinese culture, and his family received death threats.
[11][12] Following this, police stopped a fight against another self-proclaimed tai chi master, Ma Baoguo, who allegedly called them in, and Xu was banned for organizing tournaments at his gym.
During his fourth round, pitted against Yan Shuaiqi, Xu received a series of knees to the face and was left with a fractured skull and needing 26 stitches around his eyebrow.
Additionally, his credit rating was lowered to the point where he could not rent, own property, stay in certain hotels, travel on high speed rail, or buy plane tickets.
[20][21] Later that year, Xu had to wear Peking Opera face paint and cover his back tattoo during his match with Japanese kickboxer Yuichiro Nagashima so that the fight which took place in Thailand could stream in China.
This was interpreted by Bloody Elbow (MMA news site) and Radii China as being in response to Xu's complaints about "kung fu fakery".
[2][31][32] Xu has also clarified on his YouTube account that his statements were about how the mainland government should adhere to the One China, Two Systems policy as promised, rather than a call for Hong Kong independence.
Wei called for martial artists in Wuhan to assault Fang for her work while Xu defended the author who he claims was mild in criticism and was being truthful in her accounts.
[39][40] Xu has run a YouTube channel called Brother Dong's Hot Takes [zh] since 2015, consisting of 45-minute-long sports show style monologues, largely about MMA and his own experiences.