If the WBO belt is vacated, the interim titleholder would become the full WBO champion. If it isn’t, then Zhang could potentially make millions in a showdown against a heavyweight champion whose marketability will be at an all-time high.
Neither man landing the same big shots they were previously. Plenty of jabs both ways. Good right hand from Dubois lands over the rop. Hrgovic is cut but that was from a headbutt. And Hrgovic lands two good right hands. Dubois lands one of his own but Hrgovic lands another one. The jabs have dropped off as power punches are now the round.
Round 5: They start the round jawing one another and the referee separates them. And to his credit, Zinad starts with some zip this round. He’s snapping the jab hard and following with the right. Bivol blocking it all, but this is good work. And he snaps a right hand in! Best punch of the night for Zinad lands.
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.
“My sights are set on becoming a world champion, and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion ever, the baddest man on the planet and the most dangerous boxer of all time,” Paul said in a statement.
Last year was disappointing enough for site here Bivol. After earning Fighter of the Year in 2022 with wins over Canelo Alvarez and Gilberto Ramirez, Bivol didn’t appear again until the final days of 2023. He remained undefeated after shutting out Lyndon Arthur. Bivol, a 33-year-old, is 22-0 (11 KOs).
“He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT (greatest of all time),” Tyson said of Paul, per a statement.
The man from China stunned Hrgovic with a knockdown in the first, but the pair slugged it out over the twelve round distance and he ultimately lost via unanimous decision. Many pundits and fans had Zhang as the winner. He has watched the fight back, but not for the purpose of scoring – ‘that’s history’ he says.
Paul’s taunting went well beyond imitation. In the same video, the freshly tattooed YouTuber can be seen repeating one of Tyson’s old speeches word-for-word, with mentions of making Tyson his “girlfriend” and promising to “eat his children.” In any case, it appears Paul’s face tattoo is not real, with the account who posted the clip writing that while it is “definitely fake,” it makes for “hell of a promo video.”
The interim belt which Zhang now possesses puts him in a pivotal position in a heavyweight division that is at the precipice of great change. THE RING champion Oleksandr Usyk, who also holds the WBO, IBF and WBA titles, will finally meet WBC titleholder Tyson Fury on May 18, and with so many mandatory challenges left to fulfill, there remains a good chance that the belts will immediately splinter after they are unified.
Zhang’s commercialization was also hampered when CSI Entertainment, the broadcaster that signed an agreement in 2014 with Dynasty Boxing before the latter went bankrupt, disputed Roc Nation’s broadcasting rights in Asia. Roc Nation was temporarily restrained from broadcasting in Asia from June 2015. The New York Supreme Court only called off the temporary restraining order two years later in June 2017. The court also denied Duva’s motion to dismiss CSI Entertainment’s complaint.
Like Miyata, Takamura is constantly struggling with weight control, so he is prone to losing stamina slightly quicker due to fighting in weight-classes below his natural weight, which is approximately 195 pounds. However, this weakness becomes less a hindrance as he moves up the weight classes closer to his natural weight which ironically means that each new champion Takamura fights will be facing a progressively, physically, stronger Takamura. To date Takamura’s hardest fights were when he was against Bryan Hawk and David Eagle. In both instances his opponents were extremely good fighters and he was at the lowest end of his weight management making him at his physically weakest.
Wilder was one of boxing’s longest-reigning titleholders, and a can’t-miss/don’t-blink attraction who could change a fight with one punch, and often did exactly that. His trilogy with Tyson Fury was excellent, with the dramatic first fight ending in a draw, Fury’s domination of Wilder in their sequel, and the back-and-forth knockdowns in their third meeting.
