Lin Heqin wants to trade strikes, drag Itsuki Hirata into all-out striking war

Lin Heqin wants to ramp up the pressure and trade strikes for strikes with Itsuki Hirata. The pair will square off in an atomweight bout on August 26 at ONE on Prime Video 1: Moraes vs Johnson II.

Looking to step up her A game, ‘MMA Sister’ wants to be a bit of the aggressor in this upcoming battle with the Japanese judoka.

Recently, Lin Heqin was asked by Drake Riggs from MMA Mania if she’s made any changes to her game plan or fighting style in preparation for her fight against Hirata, and the Sanda fighter responded:

“Yeah, there is definitely some new stuff in my training camp, and we've been working on another whole game plan for my cardio. I know my opponent is a very good judo-style fighter, and we've been preparing for some new wrestling defense style, and we'd like to change some of my styles too. I used to fight like, running around a little bit, that kind of style. But this time, we like to do some toe to toe.”

As far as opponents go, Heqin hasn’t faced a woman with as strong a wrestling background as Hirata Itsuki. Having the right strategy will be the key to her success if she wants to go toe-to-toe with the Japanese star.

The Chinese slugger has the right team in her corner to exploit Hirata’s weaknesses by combining some of her spectacular samba/kickboxing techniques with effective submission defense to make this fight into an all-out war.

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Lin Heqin training with MMA veteran Zhang Lipeng to solidify submission takedown defense

For Lin Heqin’s prior fight camp against ‘The Indian Tigress’ Ritu Phogat last year, the Chinese striker combined forces with MMA veteran Zhang Lipeng to strengthen her takedown defense.

Although Phogat granted her only loss in MMA, she learned a lot about herself and the areas she needs to focus on in order to become a well-rounded fighter. Zhang ‘The Warrior’ Lipeng who is also on track for a lightweight world title shot, was part of her training camp.

She told Asian MMA:

“I was doing my training camp with Zhang Lipeng, the new signee of ONE Championship. He’s a good guy. We had a lot of fun during the whole training camp. I have learned a lot from him. He showed me a lot of grappling skills and a lot of takedown defense.”

The one area to improve on is her wrestling and ground game, but Lin Heqin has shown some progress since her fight with Phogat, so it will be interesting to see how far she’s come.