According to the latest media news, Zhang Zhilei (23-0-1, 18KO), the super heavyweight silver medalist of the 2008 Olympic Games, will face Croatian heavyweight rookie Philipp Helgović (14-0, 12KO) on May 7, which is an IBF heavyweight boxing championship knockout final as a cushion match before the home match of Avirez vs. Bivor.
The match will be broadcast live by DAZN-PPV, with DAZN members $59.99 per household and non-DAZN members $79.99. Zhang Zhilei's honorarium for this game is 260,000 US dollars, and Helgovic is 390,000 US dollars, 4-6 points.
The 38-year-old Zhang Zhilei currently has a professional record of 23 wins and 1 draw, 18 ko opponents, and is now 29th in the boxrec - heavyweight comprehensive ranking. Zhang Zhilei is 1.98 meters tall, which is older than Helgovich, but the chance of winning the heavyweight boxing championship is even slimmer. As a big-level boxer in China, Zhang Zhilei can get to where he is today, at least he is serious about boxing. A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier, and although Zhang Zhilei's defeat of Helgovich is very difficult, his determination to try it is still worthy of praise, and he has surpassed everyone else in China's heavyweights.
Philipp Helgović, 29, currently has a professional record of 14 wins, 12 KO opponents and is now 36th in the boxrec - heavyweight comprehensive ranking. Helgović is also 1 meter 98 tall, 14 professional games played 49 rounds, the KO rate is relatively high, but did not touch the stubble, the strength needs to be proven. Helgovich punched fiercely, but the speed was somewhat slow, and Zhang Zhilei was not without a breakthrough. Similar to Zhang Zhilei, Helgović also competed in the Olympics in 2016, when he won a bronze medal in super heavyweight boxing, losing points to to win the gold medal to Tony Yuka (11-0, 9KO).
It is also reported that the mainland light heavyweight undefeated Meng Fanlong (17-0, 10KO) will face the former world light heavyweight boxing champion Canadian Jim Pascal (35-6-1, 20KO) on May 21, with a 175-pound light heavyweight cap. Meng Fanlong was originally planned to make a light heavyweight treble before the 188-pound agreement weight war Russian "bone crusher" Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1, 29KO), but the two ultimately did not reach an agreement.
Kovalev, who is about to celebrate his 39th birthday, is still planning to return to the ring on May 14 to face Bulgarian sub-heavyweight Tervel Plev (16-0, 13KO), his first next heavyweight match. Terville-Plev is the younger brother of former two-time heavyweight fighter "Cobra" Kubra Plev (28-1, 14KO).