By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is going to need to do a really good job of matchmaking with his gold mine fighter light flyweight Zou Shiming (1-0) because after watching Shiming struggle at times to beat little known 18-yer-old Eleazer Valenzuela (2-2-2, 1 KO’s) tonight by a four round unanimous decision in Macao, China, I can’t see the 32-year-old Shiming beating the best fighters at light flyweight.
Shiming does the shoe shine bit pretty good, but he’s got no power whatsoever and he’s easily backed up. Tonight, he was just hitting, moving and trying to showboat and it didn’t come off well because he was still getting hit in return.
It’s okay to showboat if you’ve got the head and body movement to keep from getting hit, but Shiming was getting tagged by a guy that most top fighters likely would have knocked out in the 1st round. That was really telling that Shiming couldn’t even take out a five-fight novice.
If Shiming isn’t able to knockout a guy with virtually no experience, who Top Rank brought in specifically for him to look good against, what’s going to happen if and when Arum throws Shiming in the ring with WBA junior flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez. I don’t think for second Arum will do that.
Gonzalez is too good and he’s the best fighter in the junior flyweight division. When Arum does put Shiming in for a title shot next, provided that he doesn’t get beaten before then, he’s going to likely match him up against one of the weaker world champions. It’s kind of like how Arum maneuvered his fighter Manny Pacquiao into winning 8 world titles.
If you look at the guys that Arum matched Pacquiao with in many of the divisions, they weren’t the best guys in many cases. He put Pacquiao in with Miguel Cotto in a catchweight fight for Pacquiao to win the WBO welterweight title, and then Arum put Pacquiao in with the faded former welterweight Antonio Margarito in another catchweight fight this time at 150 for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title instead of putting Pacquiao in with a legit top junior middleweight at the full weight for the junior middleweight division.
I see Arum doing a good job of finding the perceived weakest champion at junior flyweight and then putting Shiming in with him next year, so he can have Shiming holding a title belt to help legitimize him in the minds of some boxing fans. But if they put Shiming in with Roman Gonzalez, it’s not going to be good for him. Shiming can’t run his way to a decision against Gonzalez.
Comments are closed.