“Of course, that’s a great fight and facing the winner will be great,” he said. “I think all of us prospects, you have a few who are considered the best like Fury, Usyk, Joshua, but all the rest of us we need to fight each other to get the best to get the chance to fight for a world title.

In 2015, Zhang was signed to Roc Nation Sports, which Dino Duva also joined as an employee and boxing executive. Roc Nation, a music promoter, entered the boxing market in August 2014 with money but no plan. David Itskowitch, Roc Nation’s founding chief operating officer of boxing, abruptly resigned in July 2016 and Duva’s influence grew after. Roc Nation’s boxing division was site in yahoo.com quick decline from 2018, all but ceased working in 2019 and closed down in 2020.

In 2019, a year before the official closure of Roc Nation’s boxing division, the Lane brothers negotiated Zhang’s release with Matchroom Boxing USA, which Duva, again, had cut a deal with. In 2024, Zhang’s co-manager recalled his promoter tried to stop him leaving by intimidation, dragging him into legal battles and refusing to line him up in fights. Brothers Tommy and Terry Lane, sons of boxing referee Mills Lane, joined Zhang as advisers and helped guide him out of trouble. It was not clear whether this incident was referring to Zhang’s termination of contract in November 2014 or in 2019.

Zhang was housemates with middleweight Meng Fanlong and lightweight Wang Zhimin in New Jersey when he first came to the US. Along with Zou Shiming, these four were the first wave of boxers ever released by the Chinese authorities to turn professional.

As if Zhilei Zhang wasn’t already intimidating—as if being 6′ 6″ with Thanos-like fists didn’t make your knees rattle, as if back-to-back knockout wins last year over granite-chinned Brit Joe Joyce weren’t enough—on this particular mid-November afternoon, inside a nondescript gun range in northern New Jersey, Zhang has his fingers wrapped around a Sig Sauer P365 XL. Guns, Zhang insists, were never his thing. His trainer, Shaun George, introduced him to recreational shooting a few years ago; Kurt Li, his co-manager, translator and, it turned out, part-time range safety officer, showed him the ropes. The first time he pulled a trigger, his hands trembled.

Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs), 32, from Ilford in east London, was stopped in eight rounds by unified titleholder Artur Beterbiev in January and got his career back on track with a simple win over late replacement Silva (22-9, 12 KOs), from Portugal.

Deontay Wilder se rapproche de son combat contre Zhilei Zhang la semaine prochaine avec confiance après avoir profité d’un bon camp d’entrainement. Le boxeur américain, ancien champion du monde, se battra pour sauver sa carrière après avoir perdu face à Joseph Parker à la fin de l’année dernière. Face à…

Zhilei Zhang, entering the ring with a record of 26 wins and 21 knockouts since debuting professionally in 2014, lost his last match against Joseph Parker in March 2024 via majority decision. Given both Zhang and Wilder faced defeat against Parker recently, Zhang might struggle against Wilder’s aggressive knockout prowess. Zhang’s southpaw stance does introduce a unique challenge for Wilder.

On 15 January 2024, it was announced that Zhang would be facing former WBO champion Joseph Parker, with the fight scheduled to occur on 8 March 2024 as the co-main event of the Knockout Chaos event, at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena. Zhang was defeated by Parker in a majority points decision, in which two judges had it for Parker, 114–112 and 115–111, and one judge had it even at 113–113.

Round 5: Williams lets his hands go but gets clipped by a solid left on the counter. Another left scores by Sheeraz. Williams gets some rhythm and finds the left hand again. Sheeraz gets back on the left jab, which is a quickly loaded punch that’s keeping the American honest.

The short answer to what a heavyweight boxer eats is, well, everything. Steak, chicken, different kinds of fish. During a recent visit to Jiang Nan, a Chinese-fusion joint Zhang frequents in Montclair, N.J., a plate filled with flat, oval-shaped meat arrives at the table. George slides a piece between a pair of chopsticks and asks Zhang to identify it. He always asks. In China, George was often offered food he couldn’t identify. Horse. Bull penis. Snake blood. “Cow tongue,” says Zhang. The chopsticks drop. “Nope,” says George. “Not eating that.”

Zhang considered turning professional at 25 years of age after the 2008 Olympics, but could not until 2014. Dino Duva and Don King were the first promoters to approach Zhang. In August 2009, Duva and King arranged for Zhang to train at the Poconos. In September 2010, Duva arranged for Zhang to train in the Poconos to prepare him for the 2010 Asian Games. The highlight of that training were 11 bouts between the Chinese and American national boxing teams in Manhattan promoted as “Empires Collide”, which Zhang defeated Danny Kelly Jr 16:8 in the main fight. Zhang dominated in all domestic amateur heavyweight competitions from 2005 until 2013. He was finally released by the Henan Provincial Combat and Weightlifting Center after he competed in the 2012 Olympics and won the gold medal for 2013 National Games of China.