Weili Zhang Denied U.S. Visa, Presidential Candidate Offers Assistance

Weili Zhang is taking on an opponent, but not inside the Octagon. Instead, she is fighting for her U.S. visa.

The newly crowned strawweight champion was looking to enter the United States, but found out her visa into the country has been denied. Zhang then took to Instagram to share the news.

“My American visa was refused again. I don’t know why. Is it the wrong type of visa I should apply for? Or because I’m a single woman? Or is the visa officer in a bad mood at work today? I hope this can be resolved so I can visit and get to meet some of my new friends and fans in America. We are still working on it and hope to have good news in time for me to make the trip on Oct 15th,” she wrote.

However, Zhang has now received help from an unsuspected person. Tulsi Gabbard, who is a United States Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd district and Democratic presidential candidate reached out to the strawweight champion to help assist her.

“Wow!” Zhang wrote. “I just received news from my manager that miss @tulsigabbard contacted him to try and help us. Thank you thank you miss Tulsi”

Zhang’s manager in Brian Butler then clarified to MMA Junkie about what is happening:

“At this time we have been denied a visa to come here for the media tour next week. We believe that there was some miscommunication of some sort that caused red flags to raise to cause the denial,” Brian Butler wrote to MMA Junkie.

“We are not quite sure what that is but we are working through the process as we speak. The UFC legal department is working on it and presidential candidate/congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also responded to me and is trying to help on her end.”

At this time, there is no word on whether or not Zhang has gotten her U.S. visa.