2023 is approaching the end of the year, and Chinese professional boxing has also come to the season of reviewing the development process of this year. As the boxing media with the highest daily text news traffic in China, "Boxing Time and Space" united more than ten senior boxing media people in China to nominate 5 candidates for this year's "Best Boxer in China", and finally the current WBO heavyweight transitional world boxing champion "Big Bang" Zhang Zhilei was elected without suspense.
Zhang Zhilei will participate in 2 professional fights in 2023, the first fight occurred on April 15 this year, when he was selected by WBO interim champion Joyce, in the pre-fight victory odds are seriously not favorable, Zhang Zhilei showed the world the domineering and determination of the Chinese, TKO Joyce in the 6th round, and won the WBO transitional heavyweight world gold belt in history!
Since Xiong Chaozhong won the WBC strawweight title in 2012, a total of 3 male boxers in the mainland have won world boxing championship honors, but the three champions Xiong Chaozhong, Zou Shiming, and Xu Can are all leaders in the small class, looking at the entire Asian boxing history, no one can win the heavyweight class dominated by Europeans and Americans, and Zhang Zhilei knows that there are tigers in the mountains and biases towards the tigers, he does not believe that the iron laws formulated by Europeans and Americans cannot be rewritten by the Chinese, and vows to tear the heavyweight shackles built by Europeans and Americans, and this tough guy who is not confused has also done it!
After several ups and downs in the professional boxing world, after 9 years of hard work, Zhang Zhilei finally stood at the top of the heavyweight world. This is the common long-cherished wish of Chinese boxers, and it also fulfills the "Chinese dream" of several generations of boxers.
After defeating Joyce, the summit showdown between Zhang Zhilei and Tyson Fury was almost certain to be staged in August this year, but Joyce suddenly activated an agreement for an immediate rematch, and Zhang Zhilei had to fulfill the terms of the contract.
On September 23 this year, the rematch between Zhang Zhilei and Joyce started as scheduled, this time Zhang Zhilei did not give his opponent a chance, knocked out the Briton in the third round, and strongly defended the transitional belt, and the world ranking also jumped to No. 5 in "Boxing" magazine and No. 6 in BoxRec, and successively refreshed a number of yellow boxer heavyweight records held by himself!
Considering that Fury and Usyk are determined to start the merger battle of the four major organizations on February 17, 2024, Joshua and Wilder will play their next match in Saudi Arabia on December 23, and there is news that if Wilder and Joshua both win, the two are likely to face off on March 9, 2024- With the Big Four schedule full, Zhang Zhilei can't wait forever at the moment, and needs to find an opponent for the next title defense, as long as he can win the second title defense game steadily, he will usher in a greater opportunity to attract gold in the second half of 2024.
Xing Wei, a boxing historian known as "Chinese Bot Shuge", said: "Zhang Zhilei's epic victory has injected a boost into the current somewhat tepid Chinese professional boxing, and at the same time made the Chinese people realize that the Chinese are fully capable of playing well in the big class, and the heavyweight class will no longer be the exclusive stage for black and white people such as Luis, Ali, Tyson, Lewis, and Klitschko, and the Chinese can also carve out their own world!" If Zhang Zhilei can maintain a winning streak in the next 2-3 years, he is very likely to become the first Chinese boxer to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, let's look forward to it!"