40-year-old veteran Zhang Zhilei
April 15, 2023 is destined to be a historic day for professional boxing in China. Before the game, the surging news reporter connected with the 40-year-old veteran in the United States, listening to him talk about his preparation and the difficulty of persevering all the way over the years.
Zhang Zhilei faces WBO heavyweight transitional champion Joyce poster
A game that makes history
"This bout is coming to compete for the WBO Transitional Title Belt, which is a milestone for me personally and for the heavyweight division of Chinese professional boxing."
"If you get this transitional title, you will get the mandatory challenge rights of the WBO, and if the current Usyk does not fight, the winner of this fight will be directly promoted to the world heavyweight title."
Perhaps busy with hard preparations, Zhang Zhilei on the other end of the phone spoke calmly, but fans will not forget that when Zhang Zhilei first delivered the news to China through social media on January 22, the whole person was in a state of excitement and joy, and the team members were also very excited, everyone high-fived each other, and some people jumped and jumped.
The fight is so important — heavyweight champions have long been considered the most influential titles in professional boxing, and even for the first time in history for a Chinese fighter, even for a transitional title. From this point of view, Zhang Zhilei has already made history from the day he signed the competition contract.
Zhang Zhilei's training is very hard
No opportunity will be missed
Why can Zhang Zhilei stand on this stage? It is impossible not to mention the match with Hergovic in August last year, when Zhang Zhilei knocked out his opponent in the first round and ended up losing the full 12 rounds by point decision.
This was the first defeat of his career, but after the fight, the boxing circle and the audience gave Zhang Zhilei a high evaluation, and to this day, Zhang Zhilei also recalls it with emotion.
"It wasn't an outcome we wanted, and at the time I thought I won. After the fight, I didn't go down in the ranking, but went up two places, which proved that people recognized me, saw my performance in the fight, and many industry insiders and fans also felt that I had won. ”
"After this match, Joyce's promoter approached our team and asked if I had any intention of playing one. Of course I agree, my goal is to be the world champion, and any opportunity [to compete for the boxing title] will not be missed, and it must be fought. ”
It can be said that Zhang Zhilei proved himself with actions, and that high-content competition won him the opportunity to continue to be on the big scene.
Previously, there were rumors that former world boxing champion Joshua may fight Zhang Zhilei, Joshua's promoters Hearn and Zhang Zhilei also cooperated, the two sides signed a promotion contract for 4 matches, and the match with Hergovic is the last, it stands to reason that this match is very likely, in this regard, Zhang Zhilei quoted Hearn himself, "I don't know what Joshua wants to do next." ”
It sounded like Joshua, who was defeated by Usyk, was a little depressed, facing Zhang Zhilei, who had an excellent performance, and did not finalize the idea of the game as soon as possible, Zhang Zhilei no longer waited, and as Joyce surfaced, the two sides hit it off.
I will do my best to seek a KO
As a transitional champion and former Olympic silver medalist (Rio Olympics), Joyce has won 14 knockouts in 15 fights since entering the professional boxing world, and is a very strong opponent, and Zhang Zhilei is deeply impressed by him.
'He plays tough, he has always been attacking and there is no weakness in a player at this level.'
During the conversation with the surging news reporter, Zhang Zhilei counted the current heavyweight boxing fighters, "Fury, Usyk, Wild, Joshua, below is Joyce, Ruiz, Hergovich is also good, in fact, there are just a few people." ”
To some extent, Zhang Zhilei has touched the top ranks of the world's heavyweight boxing.
In addition to the strength of his opponents, Zhang Zhilei also faces the impact of the long journey, and after training in the United States, he must travel to Joyce's hometown of England, where British fighters have a strong record at home, and the referee's bias in rating the home fighters is considered a potential factor.
In this regard, is Zhang Zhilei fully mentally prepared?
"We departed from the United States on April 6 and will be nearly 10 days in advance to adapt to the local playing environment, in fact, for me, it is the same everywhere, there is no home stadium not at home, [the game] still has to rely on personal strength to play."
"Judging from the last match, it is more reassuring to hand over the result to myself, I will do my best to seek the KO, and I will not leave the result to the referee." Zhang Zhilei's domineering is overflowing.
The devil trains to become the devil
Zhang Zhilei's confidence is based on strength and hard training, from January to April 15, there is a total of about three months of preparation, Zhang Zhilei admits that the preparation is quite sufficient.
According to the plan, he went to bed at 9-10 p.m., went to the training gym at 10 a.m., practiced techniques every Monday, Wednesday, and practiced special physical fitness on 246.
Zhang Zhilei introduced that the training time of large level players is not so long compared to that of small levels, but the intensity is considerable, in Zhang Zhilei's own case, his technical training will play 15-17 rounds of actual combat, and there are three sparring alone.
In addition, Zhang Zhilei will also carry out various auxiliary training, and at 6 o'clock in the morning, when many people are still sleeping, he has already walked into the swimming pool to strengthen his aerobic ability.
"(Conducting) devil training, in order to become the devil..." This is Zhang Zhilei's personal social media message, during this time, Zhang Zhilei's life in addition to training, he locked himself at home to rest, the already pitiful social cut all cut, did not go out to eat, for this big war, he has no distractions.
Zhang Zhilei himself joked that the person he would think about when eating, sleeping, and walking now was Joyce.
140,000 doping tests at your own expense
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Zhilei paid for WADA (World Anti-Doping Center) to conduct doping testing throughout the competition, and this expenditure alone cost him 140,000 yuan.
"Still for the fairness and impartiality of the competition, WADA is the official agency for doping testing in the Olympic Games, completely in accordance with the standards of the Olympic Games, in fact, there are free tests, but it is relatively crude."
Zhang Zhilei revealed that he has undergone two raid tests in the past week, "Before the test, you don't know when they will come, after flying to our city, the relevant personnel knocked directly on the door, last time I happened to be in the training hall, and they rushed to the training hall..."
This state will continue from the beginning of the declaration to the end of the competition, Zhang Zhilei stressed that he was not worried at all, the team said that the reason why the contract agreed that both players would be tested by WADA was mainly to restrain each other.
"It's not uncommon to take illegal drugs in professional boxing, so we feel more at ease."
Of course, in the face of the competition, Zhang Zhilei will also be foolproof, such as diet, he has never eaten out during this time, and all cook at home, just to prevent unnecessary trouble.
When the surging news reporter asked about Zhang Zhilei's cooking skills, he said with a smile: "The recipes are all formulated by the coach, must be less oil and less salt, my cooking skills are average, I can eat it myself, others will definitely not be able to eat it, because there is no taste." ”
Zhang Zhilei and the team
Now I'm not afraid of anyone
During the conversation, Zhang Zhilei still mentions from time to time the last match with Hergovich, which was his only defeat in 26 fights in professional boxing, but Zhang said that the loss did not frustrate him, but on the contrary, he was more motivated.
"The preparation was perfect, the game was playing very well, I saw someone on the Internet saying that I turned around and ran in the last round, in fact, I heard a tone from the sidelines, there were 10 seconds left to end the game, I felt that I must win, so I withdrew, and when the referee announced the result after the game, I heard the boos from the crowd (to the verdict)..."
In Zhang Zhilei's view, today's self has the confidence to face any strong opponent, including Joyce in front of him, "Through that match, it stimulated my fighting spirit even more, Hergovic was ranked 3rd in IBF and 13th in me, and I felt that the ranking was nothing after the fight."
"I know where my strength is, now I'm not afraid of anyone, I won't miss a second when I play again, and the more I get to the end, the more I have to fight for it."
It's not easy to do anything
Zhang Zhilei is 40 years old, and at his age, there are only one Chinese player who still competes in the arena, and there are very few who have always worked overseas.
Zhang Zhilei remembers this kind of uprooting very clearly, "I went to the United States in March 2014 and have been staying for 8 years now, during which time I spent no more than one year in China. ”
As for why he was stuck on the other side of the ocean, Zhang Zhilei's reason was simple: "Because of the need for training, I also returned to China several times, but when I went to the United States again, I had to recover again, which was a waste of time. In this way, the system training can always be maintained, and the game condition can be maintained relatively well, and the game can be played at any time. As a professional fighter, can't fight and you're not ready. ”
Zhang Zhilei only changed his career at the age of 32, and he thought he had no time to delay.
When asked about the biggest feeling of working outside, Zhang Zhilei threw out a sentence, "It's not easy to do anything." ”
Over the years, this man has been through so much that training and competition have to face huge challenges, as well as financial pressures and the loneliness of being adrift overseas.
Regarding spending money, Zhang Zhilei is talking about "careful calculation", once in order to save $200, he treated the stitches of the eyebrow arch wound at home by himself, and did not choose to go to the hospital.
As for loneliness, Zhang Zhilei said very honestly: "Don't see that I have been here for so long, in fact, I am basically isolated from society, and every day is from home to the training gym, and from the training gym and back home." ”
Pain that cannot be erased
If these difficulties gritted his teeth and survived, then Zhang Zhilei also had an unhealable pain in his heart.
"Over the years, my parents have passed away one after another, and I have not been by their side, and I have not seen each other for the last time... This is the biggest regret. Zhang Zhilei was obviously a little stuck when he said this, as if he was deliberately suppressing his emotions, and paused for a while to continue recalling.
"One day in September 2017, I got up as usual to go to training, and at about 7 o'clock, I received a call from my brother from China, and he said, 'Come back, mom is gone.'"
Zhang Zhilei didn't bring any luggage, ran to the airport alone, booked the earliest flight, departed from the United States at 11 o'clock, landed in Beijing after more than ten hours of flight, and then took the high-speed train to Zhengzhou, there were still a few hours of drive after arriving at the station, and it was already 2 o'clock in the morning when he returned to his hometown of Shenqiu County, Zhoukou City...
During this period, Zhang Zhilei's mind was confused, and he always remembered what his mother said to him the most before he died, "My mother always said, 'Son, stop floating outside, come back.'" I also told her repeatedly, 'Two more years and I'll be back, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be with you.'" "Yet the promise never had a chance to be fulfilled ...
Burn yourself for Chinese boxing
Zhang Zhilei doesn't miss his family, but he has always carried a sense of mission on his shoulders, and he wants to single-handedly fight for China's professional heavyweight boxing.
"Before 2008, there were no heavyweight athletes in China, and when I won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics, I told myself, 'You can do it.'"
"After turning professional, I became more convinced of myself, and the goal I set for myself was to become the world boxing champion, which will bring a historic breakthrough to professional boxing in China, and I believe that most Chinese boxers have the same dream as me..."
At the beginning, Zhang Zhilei probably never thought that this road would take so long, and he also thought about giving up, but this thought was fleeting, and to this day, Zhang Zhilei proudly told the surging news reporter:
"I don't care what people think, I think I'm amazing, and sometimes I look in the mirror and say to myself, 'Today you're doing great, tomorrow you're going to do better.'"
It is with this persistence and tenacity that Zhang Zhilei has come to this day, a 40-year-old fighter, still active in the center stage of professional boxing is not easy, not to mention Zhang Zhilei has won successive competitions for the right to challenge, and in the ranking published by the famous "Boxing Ring" magazine in October last year, he also ranked 10th.
epilogue
Now, the road belonging to Zhang Zhilei has not yet been completed, Zhang Zhilei frankly said that the 40-year-old self is in the best time.
"Ask me when I have the most fulfilling moment? Right now! Competition after competition, I feel that after so many years I have finally survived, I have won everyone's recognition through my own efforts, everyone likes to watch my competition, and now is my peak. ”
"Fight until you can't move."