After this, he was recruited to fight at one of China's top Sanshou academies where he was under the tutelage of Sanda coach, Zhao Xuejun.
Zhang then took up mixed martial arts and won his first thirteen fights, over a five-year period, all by knockout or submission.
[4] In August 2010, Zhang joined World Extreme Cagefighting, one of the largest mixed martial arts organizations in North America.
[10] Zhang showed accurate counters in the first few moments of the fight before eventually attempting a guillotine choke which led to a submission victory just 48 seconds into the first round.
[11] Zhang repeatedly attempted unsuccessful guillotine chokes which left him on his back where he was unable to scramble and received punches and elbows for the majority of the bout.
Zhang returned to Lightweight is expected to face Jon Tuck in Macau on November 10, 2012 at UFC on Fuel TV 6.