By Scott Gilfoid: I really like what I saw of 6’6″ Chinese super heavyweight Zhilei Zhang after watching him completely dismantle Australian Johan Linde in a 2nd round TKO last Wednesday in Olympic competition in London. Zhang, the 2008 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist, will be facing Britain’s Anthony Joshua this Monday in the quarter finals of the Olympic competition and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the 29-year-old Zhang pulls off a win.
Zhang showed a lot more ability in beating Linde than Joshua did in his gift decision over Cuban Erislandy Savon last Wednesday. Joshua won the fight by a 17-16 score, but he appeared to lose the fight by at least 10 points. I had Savon up by a huge margin after winning all three rounds in my unofficial scoring of the fight. I counted the scoring shots and Savon was cleaning Joshua’s clock royally, tagging him left and right and making him look like a novice in there.
Zhang, a southpaw, is going to be a nightmare for Joshua because Zhang has got this sweet right hook that he likes to throw and he’s deadly with that punch. He used that to stun Linde and put him down. But what I especially like about Zhang is that he doesn’t just go looking for a knockout like a primitive brute, he’s about trying to score points and he’s got down to a science.
Zhang really knows how to score points with this Olympic style punching and he’s more suited to this kind of competition than Joshua, because Joshua has a more pro style where he tries to score knockouts instead of just looking to win the fight. That’s going to be Joshua’s undoing in this fight because he’ll load up on one big right hand and get tagged eight to ten times in return by Zhang. And as long as the scoring is right for this fight, Zhang will win comfortable just as Savon should have been given the decision.
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