When he arrived at Warrior Muay Thai, he learned from the basics of Muay Thai like every beginner. In addition to the social elite, many Thais have a life attitude of "drinking today and getting drunk tomorrow, regardless of the rights and wrongs of tomorrow". Muay Thai is the most well-known combat sport in the world in addition to Western boxing, and the boxers who make a living from Muay Thai are at the bottom of society, with relatively high professional risks, hard work, and continuous tempering themselves like ascetics.

After coming to Thailand, because he didn't understand Thai, he rarely communicated with other people except for boxing, and the local Muay Thai fighters would not bother him if they had nothing to do. At that time, there were not many Chinese who came to Muay Thai to learn Muay Thai, so he was lonely at the Warrior Muay Thai gym, and after six hours of hard training in the very hot and humble gym every day, he fell asleep as soon as he returned to the small dormitory. The environment of the small dormitory is very poor, and the room is stuffed with five iron frame beds, and there are many mosquitoes in it, and the smell is terrible. Due to the poor lighting, even during the day, it is dark and always wet, like a water prison.

Although the training was hard and the living conditions were not very good, but fortunately, he was born as a professional sanda athlete and was good at learning and researching, so he made very rapid progress and quickly learned the basic boxing techniques of Muay Thai. Three months after arriving in Thailand, he started fighting Muay Thai. At that time, in addition to improving oneself in an all-round way with actual combat, the main thing was to survive. When he was in the Beijing Sanda team, he didn't have to worry about food and clothing, but after coming to Thailand, he lost his source of income, and playing matches became his only way to survive.

Although the upper-middle level Muay Thai fighters now fight in Thailand and the appearance fee is 3,000-7,000 baht, at the end of the 90s, the appearance fee for a fight was only 30-50 baht, and the appearance fee and prize money were divided between the four and six of the gyms, the six gyms and the four fighters. Of course, only when you fight a well-known boxer with a relatively high level of attention, the winner will have a bonus, and for a boxer like Coach Zhang who has just made his debut in Muay Thai, there is no prize money even if he wins.

At that time, during the most difficult time in Thailand, he sometimes couldn't eat for a day or two, and had to constantly drink tap water to fill his stomach. Because he didn't eat and didn't have the strength to practice, he could only come to the gym to practice air strikes against the wall or lie on the bed and close his eyes to save energy. In order to survive, he kept fighting, at least two fights a month to ensure that he did not starve, not only Muay Thai matches, but also boxing matches, as long as there was an appearance fee, there was really no competition, he could only call relatives and friends in China to borrow money to survive.

As an 80-kilogram fighter, he has to fight 70kg and 90kg or even 100kg fighters, and it is very risky to fight Muay Thai with heavyweights, but he has no other way to survive in Thailand. In the beginning, he mainly played the main tournament and lost frequently, but later, as he adapted to Muay Thai and practiced hard in the gym, he began to win fights.

If there is no KO, even if the points are superior, the referee will basically decide that the foreign fighter loses through the score and award the victory to the Thai local fighter, which has long been a well-known unspoken rule in the Muay Thai world.

Because Muay Thai's elbow and knee are lethal, injuries are commonplace, I remember in July 1997, he met a strong opponent, in the hard fight, his face was cut by the opponent's elbow a long hole, blood flowed, teeth were knocked out by the opponent's back straight punch, his coach advised him to give up, but he always refused, he felt that he was not only representing the warrior Muay Thai gym, but also representing Chinese martial arts, he could not easily admit defeat to the Muay Thai fighter. So after a brief medical treatment, he returned to the Circle in front of the Thai fans, and finally won by TKO in the third round. When the fight was over, after returning to the gym dormitory, he injured his bladder, and when he went to the toilet, he found that the urine was actually bloody. His friends advised him to take a 10-day and a half-month break, but he didn't heed, and after three days of rest, he went to the gym again with a pain and threw himself into high-intensity training.

After a year in this purgatory-like environment, he gradually made a name for himself in Thailand, and his appearance fee was rising, and with the prize money for winning matches, he basically lived a worry-free life in Thailand.

On one occasion, he fought a 175-pound (80-kilogram) Muay Thai bout with WMC (World Muay Thai Council) Intercontinental Champion Shan Bakka, who was the most famous Muay Thai fighter he had met since coming to Thailand. However, by the time he played against Shembaka, Shembaka's form had already begun to decline.

This bout also doubled the appearance fee for his previous boxing fights. During the pre-match weigh-in session, he was provoked by Shanbaka, who stared him in the eye and said in Thai: "Chinese Yankee, I'm going to screw your head off and kick it to China as a football." At that time, he had learned a little bit of Thai through Thai learning in his spare time, and when he understood what Shan Baka meant, he was completely enraged, but he did not rush towards Shan Baka in front of him, nor did he show the slightest anger on his face, he just looked at Shan Baka calmly. When he came to the ring, when the referee's shout began, he immediately turned this anger into strength, took the initiative to attack, kept pressing, and beat Shanbaka back and forth.

At the end of the second round, Shanbaka was beaten by the young and strong him, and the corner of his eye was broken by his straight punch, and the blood covered Shanbaka's eyes. Seeing that Shan Baka had fallen into a disadvantage and was about to lose the game, the coach who was shouting tactics for him on the sidelines ordered Coach Zhang to give up the game during the break in the second round.

Coach Zhang understands that many people who gamble on boxing have bought Shanbaka, and the owner of his gym must have received a lot of benefits. People are under the roof and have to bow their heads, there have been a few matches before, he was in an absolute advantage, under the arrangement of the coach, deliberately lost to the opponent, but this time, he didn't want to do it, his ears kept echoing the words that Shanbaka provoked him, he wanted to defend the dignity of Chinese martial arts and Chinese fighters with all his might.

He knew that if he didn't knock out Shanbaka, the victory would still belong to Shanbaka, and that was something the Thai fans in the ring would love to see. In the third game, when his physical strength was almost exhausted, he ignored a shouting hint from his coach and used his remaining strength to launch a ferocious attack on Shanbaka, who was exhausted and crumbling by several heavy swing punches from Coach Zhang, leaving only the strength to defend. He can only hinder Coach Zhang's offense by clinching again and again, and try to delay time.

But Coach Zhang did not let his strategy succeed, he forced Shanbaka to the corner, when Shanbaka was wrapped again, he quickly pushed Shanbaka away with his hand, pointed at his forehead with his left hand, after controlling the back distance, his right foot advanced a small step, his right arm was bent, and an elbow hit Shanbaka's head, Shanbaka hooked his head, held his head with both hands, and blocked this fierce attack.

Coach Zhang concocted the same method, followed by a slash of his right hand, another elbow, and then a third elbow, Shanbaka's left hand was finally opened, Coach Zhang's right elbow hit Shanbaka's temple hard, Shanbaka's head shook, beads of sweat flew out horizontally, his body fell backwards, fell on the rope of the ring, rebounded, and fell at Coach Zhang's feet, motionless. There was a section of Muay Thai fans in the ring who paid him to win and was impressed by his skills. When the tournament leader handed him the championship trophy and he raised the trophy and raised his arms and shouted, he saw that the referee's expression was very stiff in the ring, and his coach on the side of the ring was pale, and there was no trace of joy in sight. But it doesn't matter to him, what matters is that he broke the history of Chinese fighters who always end in defeat against Muay Thai masters, upheld the dignity of Chinese martial arts, and he set a new record - becoming the first Chinese to win by knockout of a Muay Thai master on Thai soil, a few years before Baoligao knocked out Muay Thai king Sithipo "Knee King" Lupaba in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003.