Zhang was scheduled to fight Filip Hrgović in an IBF title eliminator on 7 May 2022. However, Hrgović pulled out of the fight on 2 May, after his father died and his training suffered. Scott Alexander was chosen as the replacement on the Canelo Álvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol undercard, with the fight being dropped from the co-main to the undercard. Zhang won the bout via first-round knockout. His fight against Hrgović was rescheduled for 20 August 2022, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua II. On that night, zhang zhilei record knocked Hrgović down in the first round with a big right. After a close-fought battle over twelve rounds, the judges awarded the fight to Hrgović with two scores of 115–112 and one of 114–113, in what was described as a “generous” decision by broadcaster Sky Sports after a “bizarre” performance by Hrgović.
He took third place at the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Chicago, thus qualifying for boxing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he won a silver medal. His fight was the last event of the 2008 Olympics. His coaches were disappointed he missed the publicity that would have accompanied the final gold medal for China. Despite that, he attracted a lot of attention by being the first Asian to win an Olympic medal in the unlimited weight class. At the 2012 Olympics, he was defeated on points in the quarterfinal by Anthony Joshua, the future unified heavyweight world champion.
Wilder vs. Zhang took place June 1 at the Freedom Arena in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. Deontay Wilder (43-4-1) and Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1) squared off in the the main event clash. The fight aired live on pay-per-view on DAZN.
Zhang defeated Joe Joyce twice in 2023, earning stoppage wins both times. The 40-year-old southpaw is somewhat of a “boogeyman” in the division, as his last four wins have come by knockout. “Big Bang” Zhang knows another stellar outing come Friday will inch him closer toward a major world title opportunity.
Zhilei Zhang delivers a devastating third-round knockout to win his WBO interim heavyweight title rematch against Joe Joyce, who suffers back-to-back defeats; in his post-fight interview, Zhang says: “To the audience, I want to ask you a question: Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”
Hrgović’s defeat ended Zhilei’s 24-fight win streak. He is yet to make his total title win or any related achievements, mostly due to his late start in professional boxing. Nevertheless, Zhilei is renowned for some of his best fights and notable victories that include wins over Peter Graham, Devin Vargas, Scott Alexander, Andriy Rudenko, Craig Lewis, Don Haynesworth, and Mark Brown.
They appeared to be in different weight classes Saturday, too, as Zhang outweighed Wilder by 68.2 pounds — at 282.8 compared with Wilder’s 214.6. There is no weight limit in boxing’s heavyweight division.
Round 10: Wildheart is going to hear the final bell and she deserves to. She gamely tries a few body shots after Mayer snaps her head back with a right. Wildheart is badly bloodied, her nose is a mess, but she’s put in a superb showing on 24 hours notice.
When he moved to the United States on March 8, 2014, he had to manage and self-finance aspects of his life which had previously been handled by the Henan Provincial Combat and Weightlifting Center. Cooking for himself was the biggest challenge of his early days in the US. In his first few months as a professional, he spent more time learning how to properly cook noodles than he did working in the ring.
Picking up where he left off in their first fight, a confident Zhang flattened Joyce with a right hand toward the end of the round in front of the Londoner’s home crowd. The win and the manner in which he delivered it might earn Zhang a world title shot in 2024.
At age seven, Zhang and his father moved to downtown Shenqiu County for educational reasons. Zhang later attended Shenqiu’s Huaidian Hui Town No.3 Middle School. His father enrolled him in canoe sprinting lessons in order for him to lose weight. The Zhoukou region was a hotbed of watersports in the 1990s, with Olympic rower Mu Suli, born the same year as Zhang, growing up in a different part of Zhoukou during the 1990s.
Zhang has a rematch clause, so he can force a second fight with Parker. What’s clear is Zhang needs to lose weight to get back down to where he was for his two wins over Joe Joyce. That version of Zhang would have been lethal tonight, as he was devasting in those two fights against Joyce.
China’s Zhang, 41, connected with a perfectly timed counter right hook that spun Wilder in a daze. With Wilder defenseless, Zhang (27-2-1, 21 KOs) sprinted in and smashed him with another right hand that planted the American hard on the canvas.
Frank Warren (born 28 February 1952) is an English boxing manager and promoter. Warren and his son George own and run Queensberry Promotions. Warren was also a founder of the British boxing television channel BoxNation which ran for over 11 years from 2012.
