On March 9, according to the authoritative boxing media in the United States, 38-year-old Chinese heavyweight boxer Zhang Zhilei will take the stage on May 7, local time in the United States, and compete with Croatian giant Hegvic for the qualification of the IBF boxing champion gold belt mandatory challenge. At that time, Zhang Zhilei appeared as a vice-main match, becoming the final battle of the main match Avarez vs Biwall, which can be said to be the biggest scene of Chinese boxers in the world.
Prior to this, the author has reported many times about the IBF mandatory challenger qualification match, the 29-year-old Hegvech has been given the ticket to the mandatory challenge qualifier a few months ago, and the boxer who is almost opposed to it has taken over the petition, but the IBF executives have contacted 7-8 high-ranking players to compete with Hegvech to compete for the qualification of the compulsory challenger, but these boxers have refused for various reasons, only Zhang Zhilei resolutely took over the game, so that the IBF finally promoted the confrontation.
It is understood that Zhang Zhilei and Hegwich's duel playing fee is 260,000 US dollars, Hegvic is 390,000 US dollars, if Zhang Zhilei can win, he will next become the IBF heavyweight boxing king Usik's legal challenger, once the competition is held, Zhang Zhilei's appearance fee will exceed one million US dollars, and may even reach several million US dollars. Therefore, the great battle with Hegvich is crucial, and it can be said that it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ascend to the sky.
It is worth mentioning that the current situation in Ukraine is still very tense, IBF/WBA/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion Usik is still defending his country in Ukraine, and the second match with Joshua originally scheduled for May is likely to not be held as scheduled, if Usik can not compete in the next year, his golden belt will face the risk of being deprived, so Zhang Zhilei may next compete with Joshua for the vacant world title, which is also a contest that Zhang Zhilei has been looking forward to for many years, because at the 2012 London Olympic Games, Zhang Zhilei regretted losing to the final gold medalist Joshua with close points, so he was looking forward to one day being able to take revenge, but before revenge, winning the big battle with Hegvich was the only way.
As for whether Zhang Zhilei can make history and become the first Chinese to challenge the heavyweight boxing champions of the world's four major organizations? Let's wait and see!