Boxing News: After “walking through” Joe Joyce on Saturday night, Zhilei Zhang aspires to fight Tyson Fury for the heavyweight world championship in China, according to Terry Lane, his co-manager.
At the Copper Box Arena, Zhang put on a commanding performance against Joyce, stopping the British heavyweight in the sixth round to hand him his first professional loss.
With his sights set firmly on another title chance, Zhang’s triumph served as the ideal follow-up to his own contentious first career loss to Filip Hrgovic in their IBF title eliminator last August.
Terry Lane, Zhang’s co-manager, said to Sky Sports, “This is what we expected.” “Zhilei, in my opinion, is the world’s best heavyweight. Anyone who believes differently, in my opinion, is not truly paying attention.
“Is there a heavyweight with a more impressive résumé from the past year? He defeated Hrgovic, but his hand was not raised. We anticipated that he would simply go through Joe Joyce.
“Anthony Joshua, [Derek] Chisora, and [Dillian] Whyte have all declined to challenge him. They are irrelevant because they won’t interfere with him.
“Deontay Wilder’s career would be ended and he would suffer serious harm. What remains when no one can engage in combat with him? Tyson Fury and [Olek] Usyk.
“I am aware that the current sanctioning body scramble is a shambles. The two most difficult fights are the ones we want and are the largest fights, but no one can predict how they will play out or what will happen in either of them.
“We want to discuss how to do it with George Warren. Our long-term goals include becoming world champions. He technically holds a portion of the WBO interim belt, which is a historic championship in China.
“With our collaboration with Tik Tok, we received an incredible response, garnering millions and millions of views in China yesterday night. In terms of the reception, it actually exceeded all of our expectations. People were up at five in the morning to watch him fight for a dollar.
“I watch the guy in the gym sparring, and he consistently beats large heavyweights. I am quite pleased about what we have, and perhaps other people are just starting to realise it.
“We want the world titles, but he’s not young; he turns 40 on May 2. As it was previously very difficult to make something financially successful in China, we want the title opportunities.
“Our colleagues there are experimenting, and frankly, last night was a success. We’ll discuss our options with Queensberry, Fury’s UK promoters, at our meeting.”
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