The Paper's reporter Chen Jun
On April 21, Beijing time, the agency of former WBA featherweight world boxing champion Xu Can announced that on May 21, Xu Can would play a 10-legged transition battle with Mexican boxer Blanton Benitez in Florida.
It was the first match since Xu Can lost his championship gold belt last August, and the 28-year-old Chinese boxer will once again strike to the top from here.
Xu Can was in training before.
Desperate training, I'm going to kill back
Despite losing the Golden Belt last year, Xu Can remains China's highest-ranked P4P boxer – he is no. 7 in the WBA and 10th in WBC and is still seen as a strong contender for the title.
However, in order to re-enter the championship, Xu Can must be fully prepared, and the Benitez in front of him is the first hurdle he needs to pass.
According to the data, Benitez is only 24 years old, the current professional record is 18 wins and 2 losses, in the rising period of his career, through the game with him will effectively verify Xu Can's status.
Liu Gang, chief promoter of Boxing WeiWei, said: "This match is of great significance, on the one hand, to prove that Xu Can can still play and want to regain the gold belt; on the other hand, it can also boost the morale of Professional Boxing and practitioners in China." ”
The defeat in London in August last year was a heavy blow to Xu Can's career, and according to himself, "it wasn't until October that he gradually came out of the shadow of defeat." ”
In the past 9 months, Xu Can has hardly appeared in public, in addition to releasing short videos of boxing teaching through some media platforms, Xu Can has tied himself to the boxing gym to fight for life training, with only one purpose - to kill again.
"As a professional boxer, I have to be able to enjoy the victory and be able to face the defeat, I can accept the result, but I can't accept the process, the game was played too badly. My biggest advantage was physical fitness, but I didn't show it in that game. ”
To this day, Xu Can still feels depressed about the defeat, and Liu Gang revealed that at that time, Xu Can not only faced a strong opponent, but also faced many unfavorable factors.
"Because of the epidemic, Xu Can first trained in Thailand, and then flew to the United States after several twists and turns to enter the training camp of the famous coach Pedro Diaz, who had already arranged two opponents in succession, and as a result, the competition died in the middle of the new crown because of the other party's infection."
In this case, the British boxer Leigh Wood challenged Xu Can, but was only willing to fight on the mainland, and Xu Can went to The United Kingdom... Coupled with the huge temperature difference, Xu Can's physical state was actually not adjusted to the best. ”
Lu Xiaolong, CEO of Boxing Wei, also revealed to the surging news reporter that in the mainstream professional boxing market in Europe and the United States, Chinese professional boxers face too many difficulties in overseas struggle, and the outbreak of the epidemic has increased the uncertainties.
Xu Can in the game.
A war that cannot be lost
Looking back on Xu Can's career, he played 3 games non-stop in 2019, won the gold belt and defended the title twice.
But from the defeat of American challenger Roberts III in November 2019 to the reappearance in the ring in August 2021, there were no matches to play for 20 months in between, which is enough to explain the problem.
Originally, Xu Can had a two-game agreement with Lee Wood's promoter Herne, but also because it was not easy to play abroad, coupled with the WBA's efforts to reduce the title of boxing champion in the organization, urging Lee Wood to have a direct dialogue with the transitional boxing champion Conlan, Xu Can's challenge was suddenly postponed.
The latest news shows that after defeating Conlan, Lee Wood regards Santa Cruz as the next opponent of this level of super boxing, and the WBA is happy to complete the united battle within the organization as soon as possible.
At present, the official did not disclose that Xu Can will need to go through several games to return to the championship, and the future will largely depend on his ranking and performance in the game, which means that there is no room for mistakes in the battle with Benitez, and only by defeating the opponent strongly can Xu Can win priority for himself.
According to the schedule, Xu Can will fly to the competition site in May, and in the description of the team's relevant people, Xu Can's training in the past few months has been quite good, "He has grown a lot of muscles, more strong than before." ”
Xu Can himself said: "I am increasing the reserves in the arsenal, not only fighting, but also need to make good use of my distance advantage to play out my height and arm span." ”
It sounds like a defeat made Xu Can learn a lot, and he was physically and mentally ready to make a comeback.
Meng Fanlong will also be unveiled
It is worth mentioning that on the day of the competition, another outstanding professional player in China, Meng Fanlong, will also appear in the competition against the Canadian famous Pascal.
Meng Fanlong has a professional record of 17 wins and 10 KO, and is currently ranked second only to Xu Can in the P4P list of Professional Boxers in China, and has qualified to challenge the IBF light heavyweight world boxing champion Betbiyev.
It is also because of various interference factors that the game has not been able to complete, Meng Fanlong can only retreat to the second place to fight Pascal, and winning the game will provide chips for the king of the board to a large extent.
The tournament was promoted and organized by ProBox in the United States and broadcast exclusively by the official partner platform KOTV in Chinese mainland. ProBox Promotion was co-founded by Many Boxing Legends such as Roy Jones, Juan Marquez, Antonio Tarver, etc., and this time it joined hands with two Chinese boxing stars, and the purpose is also clear:
ProBox values the progress of Chinese players in recent years and the huge potential market in China, and they hope to help more outstanding Chinese players step onto the world stage.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Ding Xiao