NIVESH MARKEL

Earlier in the night, American Mikaela Mayer moved a step closer to a potential future showdown with Ireland’s undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor as she beat late replacement Lucy Wildheart on points.

Tyson Fury, détenteur de la ceinture WBC et qui prépare actuellement son combat événement face à Francis Ngannou le 28 octobre en Arabie saoudite, semble être la prochaine cible de Zhang. Ce dernier a demandé à la Wembley Arena si le public souhaitait le voir “faire taire Tyson”. Un choc qui ne manquerait pas de punch.

On 27 November 2021, Zhang faced Craig Lewis on the undercard of Teófimo López vs. George Kambosos Jr. Zhang started the fight off slowly, but dropped Lewis twice in round two, leading Lewis’ corner to throw in the towel, site here giving Zhang a win by TKO.

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.

“I learned about life from my losses. I’ve learned that as I get older and I lose my friends, my children, my teeth, my hair—and eventually, I’m going to lose my life—life is all about loss,” he says. “We’re going to be old one day. We’re going to lose our teeth, lose our eyesight, lose our hair, lose our dick, lose everything we thought made us who we were. We’re going to lose our identity. In the end, we’ll be grateful if someone has a picture of us on the family wall, if they even put up a picture of us.”

By the 6th round, Joe’s right eye was a wreck and the doctors had to take a look at it. Zhang took advantage of Joe’s wrecked eye and unleashed a series of punches. Officials had to stop the bout again with doctors coming in.

“So I don’t think you’re going to get a better opportunity to do something major in the territory of a major event than with a world-class heavyweight. People are going to start getting excited once they realize he is a world-class fighter,” he added.

“You have to keep the fire on blue. When the fire is on blue, you have control of the fire,” Cordeiro says, comparing Tyson to a stove. “Mike has control of the fire. But when you step inside the ring, he knows how to go high as fast as possible.

Zhang moves him to another corner. Wilder is gunshy. He’s not throwing. Now he sends one and it makes Zhang cover up. But too few. Great lead right hook from Zhang as Wilder stepped out. He keeps getting moved to the corner though and he’s not throwing enough. When Zhang is out-working you, that’s a problem.

Zhang’s offense has slowed to a crawl as well. He’s getting Wilder backed up but now he’s throwing one left hand that Wilder ducks. This is devolving into sparring. Bad sparring. Wilder lands a right, Zhang a left.

Round 6: Ford boxing well, but suddenly catches a left uppercut in close. Body attack from Ball and a right hook. Not a lot coming back from the champion right now and he looks flustered. Body shot from Ford, but he’s not doing enough work. Ball overpowering his man inside. Left hook lands on the inside from the challenger.

In 1995, Zhang was called up to the Shenqiu County canoe sprinting team by coach Li Guofeng. When Zhang injured his leg during a tryout for the provincial canoe sprinting team, he was referred to the provincial boxing coach Gu Ganqing. In 1998, Gu signed him to the Combat and Weightlifting Center in the Henan Provincial Department of Sports, headed by center chief Li Yan in Shangjie. From 1998 until he was released from his sporting obligations, he was coached by Gu. This was the first time Zhang had lived away from his family.

Just as Chairman Mao led a revolution and transformed China, Tyson has undergone his own personal revolution. From a troubled youth to a world-renowned athlete, he has defied expectations and rewritten his narrative. The tattoo serves as a permanent reminder of his resilience and the power of personal transformation.

The early years in the U.S. were chaotic. Zhang’s pro debut, says Tommy Lane, “was a disaster.” The original opponent fell out a week before the bout. His replacement went down nine seconds into the first round. The Lanes and Duva clashed over how to best develop their fighter. Duva wanted to make him into a big puncher whose power would be his draw. “Dino saw Zhang as a Chinese Primo Carnera,” says Terry. Duva insists he believed in Zhang but understood a fighter so new to the pro style needed to be brought along slowly.

Both wins came in front of Joyce’s home crowd, which provided even more significance. First, he won his first fight for the WBO interim belt after knocking him out in the sixth round. In the rematch at London’s Wembley Arena, Zhang took just three rounds to knock Joyce out.

Round 11: One-two from Ford scores. Right hand and a body shot from Ball. A big attack from the challenger but nothing landed. Great left to the body from Ford. Jab scores well from Ford. Ball takes a left hand and asks for more. He’s not able to pin the American down and the rounds are slipping away.