WBO interim heavyweight champion Zhilei Zhang has taken to Instagram to call out Anthony Joshua following his victory over Otto Wallin last Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Zhang is coming off his second straight knockout victory over Joe Joyce, and he arguably should still be undefeated after losing a controversial decision to Filip Hrvgovic.
If you saw that fight, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last year, you walked away from it, thinking, ‘What on earth did I just see? That was the mother of all robberies.’ This writer had Zhang winning 11-1 in a fight that wasn’t remotely close.
Eddie Hearn didn’t mention ‘Big Bang’ Zhang as a potential option for Joshua’s next fight last night after his win over Wallin. Hearn seemed almost in a celebratory mood after watching AJ’s previously planned opponent, Deontay Wilder, losing to Joseph Parker in the co-feature last night. Hearn was on cloud nine after Wilder’s loss, and it’s understandable.
Wilder was a serious threat to Joshua’s money-making potential, and it could have been bad for AJ if he’d won and looked good. Now that Wilder is out of Joshua’s orbit, Hearn is going to need to find an opponent that the boxing world respects to break the pattern of stiffs that he’s been feeding him since his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk.
The big 6’6″ southpaw Zhang would be a massive upgrade from the gawdawful opposition that Hearn has been using to prop Joshua’s career against in his last three fights.
It would be interesting for fans to see how Joshua holds up under the firepower of Zhang, as he’s a completely different type of heavyweight than the pillow-fisted opposition that Hearn has been feeding AJ to make him look good to naive fans, who have been utterly clueless about what he’s been doing. They think that Wallin was a cutting-edge heavyweight, which he clearly isn’t.
Joshua had his third consecutive confidence-builder fight last night against fringe contender Wallin (26-2, 14 KOs), who had no power, no speed, no confidence and was arguably a big step down for AJ from his two previous morale-boosting fights against Robert Helenius and Jermaine Franklin.
Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) wants a rematch of his 2012 London Olympics fight with Joshua, which AJ won by a close decision in a clash that many viewed as one of the four robberies involving him during that competition.
Zhilei Zhang on Instagram calling out Anthony Joshua: “I lost to a better man 11 years ago in the Olympics. I’m happy we have both come a long way and gone through ups and downs in life. Now it’s time to do this for the sport of boxing and give it to the fans around the world. Let’s get it on!”
Charles Brun had Joshua losing all four of his fights, particularly his matches against Zhang, Savon, and the icing on the cake, Cammarelle. It’s fair to say that Joshua’s gold medal victory in the 2012 Olympics was a springboard to him making a boatload of dough, fighting in the UK, and raking in the moolah with his fights against soft opposition and an old Wladimir Klitschko.
Joshua captured a gold medal, but many boxing fans saw him losing repeatedly and given questionable decisions. The Zhang fight was one of the many. AJ’s ‘wins’ during the 2012 London Olympics:
– Roberto Cammarelle
– Erislandy Savon
– Ivan Dychko
– Zhilei Zhang
