By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach sees light flyweight Zou Shiming possibly becoming a world champion within a year. At 32, Shiming, a former 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medalist for China, doesn’t have a lot of time in looking to capture a world title.
The good news is the light flyweight division is a weak one. The bad news is Shiming can’t punch and will have to be carefully maneuvered because if Top Rank matches him against the best champion at light flyweight Roman Gonzalez, he could have problems.
Roach said “Zou Shiming is going to be a world champion in a short time, possibly inside one year, and I think he can do it in fewer fights than Leon Spinks.”
It would mean a lot more what he says if Roach had been training guys for the light flyweight division all along and was familiar with the division, but given that he’s pretty brand new in training guys at this weight class, I think Roach is guessing rather than speaking with knowledge.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is talking about wanting to match Shiming with WBA/WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria in 2014. Arum can certainly make this match-up because he promotes both fighters, but I think it’s a bad idea for Shiming.
Viloria has too much power and it would be a bad idea for Shiming because this isn’t the amateur ranks anymore and he’d have problems with Viloria if the fight went into the later rounds.
Shiming will be making his pro debut on Saturday night against Eleazar Valenzuela (2-1-1, 1 KO’s) at the Cotai Arena, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
With four titles in every division it’s possible that Shiming can pick up one of the world titles at light flyweight, but like I said, if they put him in with Roman Gonzalez he’s going to have problems.
Comments are closed.