Fighter Of The Week (4/10-4/16): Zhilei Zhang
In an otherwise quiet weekend of boxing, one big man made an extraordinary "Big Bang". Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang walked into the ring at the Copper Arena, a 10:1 underdog, and walked out with the WBO interim Heavyweight title holder. He also put himself in line to fight unified champ Oleksandr Usyk, got the biggest win of his career, moved his record to 25-1-(20), handed Joe "The Juggernaut" Joyce his first professional loss, and captured our Fighter of the Week award.
It became obvious from the opening bell that the boxing world had overlooked the large Chinaman. Zhang showed an ability to walk forward, firing his southpaw jab and scoring with straight lefts, and was able to slide his head off the center line and make Joyce miss with regularity. Zhang rocked Joyce with straight lefts in round two, as it was Joyce who began to look like the hype job. The Brit's head was a stationary target for the left hand of his underdog opponent. Joyce picked up his pace to try and change the momentum, but it was of little consequence, as he was still unable to avoid the rapid fire from Zhang. The interim champ's eye started swelling severely from the left hand and took some hard shots. Joyce fought valiantly and with a sense of urgency, and a high work rate! He fired off his jab and mixed in some right hands, but Zhang was inflicting more damage. The ring doctor finally stopped the bout and put Joyce out of his misery. The cards at the end of the fight were surprisingly close Zhang was up 48-47x2 and Joyce was up on the third card 48-47. Following the upset victory, the victorious Chinese native said, “Today is mine. I’m 39 years old, but I’m disciplined, I trained hard, next step I’m going for the title!”
It was beginning to look like the "Big Bang" was a big bust. At least that's how his career was being written off as, following a draw with Jerry Forrest and a loss to Filip Hrgovic. However, he turned his career path 180 degrees Saturday night in the backyard of Joyce. Now as the WBO interim champ, he is in line for a world title shot with Usyk. Unfortunately, that fight may have to wait just a bit. Usyk is expected to and is already training to, fight with Daniel Dubois. Following that, he will likely push for a Fury bout. Couple that with the fact that Usyk only fights once a year, and a fight with the unified champ may be on the shelf for quite some time. In the interim, the WBO has Andy Ruiz ranked #1 and Frank Sanchez at #2. The sanctioning body could potentially go down the list and call one of those fights. Either opponent would be the best opponent Zhang has stepped in with.
