Weili Zhang. Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: UFC women’s champion lifts up Shaquille O'Neal

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated 9/30/23

Weili Zhang pulled off the mother of all bench presses over the weekend.

Zhang, the two-time defending UFC Women’s Strawweight champion, shared an incredible viral moment with retired basketball great Shaquille O’Neal.

Having taken a trip to China, O’Neal met up with Zhang at a local gym. Despite only being 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, Zhang miraculously managed to lift up the larger-than-life O’Neal while demonstrating a takedown move. She went for O’Neal’s tree trunk of a left leg and successfully got him off the ground entirely for a brief moment.

Check out the stunning video (posted by Zhang to Instagram).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Weili Zhang (@zhangweilimma)

Zhang also got in some friendly punches on O’Neal in another video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Weili Zhang (@zhangweilimma)

The 7-foot-1 O’Neal was listed at 325 pounds during his career. While he has lost a lot of weight since he admittedly ballooned like mad a few years ago, The Big Diesel is still one extremely large member of the human species.

For those keeping score at home, Zhang was able to lift up roughly triple her weight in that video. O’Neal has met up with other petite athletes before, but Zhang is the very first one to (quite literally) sweep him off his feet.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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