By Scott Gilfoid: 2008 super heavyweight Olympic silver medalist Zhang Zhilei will be making his pro debut this Friday against 30-year-old Curtis Lee Tate (7-4, 6 KOs) in a scheduled 4 round bout at the Churchill County Fairgrounds, in Fallon, Nevada, USA.
The Zhilei-Tate will be televised on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on the undercard of the junior middleweight clash between contender Willie Nelson and Luis Grajeda.
The highly talented 6’6” southpaw Zhilei was arguably robbed in his 2012 Olympic match-up against Britain’s Anthony Joshua in the London Olympics. Zhilei fought well enough to deserve the decision, but it was Joshua who had his hand raised despite Zhilei appearing to get the better of him in three of the four rounds.
Only 31, Zhilei has the size, power, speed and talent to become a world champion within 2-3 years. It’s unclear how quickly his promoter Dino Duva will bring him along, but given that Zhilei has fought in two Olympics for China and has massive amounts of experience at the amateur level, he could be ready to start fighting top tier competition this year and shoot for a world title by 2015.
The only thing that Zhilei needs is to make sure he gets used to potentially fighting 12 round bouts so that he doesn’t have any stamina issues. He’s probably going to be knocking out most of his opponents within the first four rounds like Deontay Wilder, but he still needs at least one or two fights that go the full distance so that he can know what it’s like before he gets in with someone really good.
“We’ve all been waiting a long time for this moment, for Zhilei’s first pro fight,” Duva said to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “I’ve been waiting almost five years. This may very well be the first fight for a very historic boxer’s career. His goal is to be the first Chinese world heavyweight champion. I feel he has the potential, but it’s going to be a learning process that will take much hard work and dedication.”
Zhilei definitely has the kind of talent to become a world champion. His size and straight left hand is going to make it tough on anybody he faces.
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