On May 16, Beijing time, it was learned from reliable sources in the industry that the WBA (World Boxing Federation) has passed a high-level decision, and the 28-year-old Chinese big-level titan Zhang Zhaoxin has been qualified to challenge the world gold, and he will challenge the WBA bridgerweight world gold belt in the second half of this year.
It is understood that the upper weight limit of the WBA's bridgerweight is set at 224 pounds, which is a new level introduced by the WBA and WBC in recent years. Friends who pay attention to professional boxing know that the weight range of the heavyweight class is delineated at more than 200 pounds, but because heavyweight boxers have tended to develop as giants in recent years, the weight tonnage is generally much larger than that of the boxers in the Tyson and Holyfield periods in the 90s of the last century, so the WBA and WBC created the bridgerweight class for the sake of fairness in the confrontation between fighters.
It is worth mentioning that the original WBA brigerweight World Title was originally held by Russian fighter Tischenko, who won the World Title by TKO of German fighter Leon Hearts in a six-round TKO in the gold bout held in Dubai last December.
However, Tischenko was found to have doped after the fight, and the losing side, Hartz, appealed to the WBA arbitration committee through his lawyer, asking him to get another chance to challenge for the world belt, and after repeated deliberations by the WBA arbitration body, it was finally decided to remove Tischenko from the belt, but the match was changed to "no result", and ordered Leon Hearts to fight for the vacant belt with another Russian fighter, Muslim Ghajimagomedov.
The matchup is expected to take place in July, and the winner of the July fight must accept Zhang's challenge in the next 120 days, so Zhang's fight for the World Belt is expected to take place in September-October this year.
According to the latest world rankings of each class released by the WBA, Zhang Zhaoxin ranks first in bridgerweight, which is also the highest ranking of China's active professional boxer in the four major organizations.
The reason why Zhang Zhaoxin was able to come to such a high position is due to his shocking battle of knocking out Romanov away in February this year, the heart-wrenching Sino-Russian collision is the WBA brigderweight forced challenger exclusion battle, and it is also broadcast on CCTV5 "World Professional Boxing Championship" column, in the game, Zhang Zhaoxin not only won all the strong opponents with powerful heavy punches in 2 rounds of KO19 fights, but also shocked the four players; After the game, he wore the national flag and roared to the sky, bursting out with the passionate roar of "I am Chinese", which also lifted countless viewers in front of the TV and mobile phone screens, and since then the name of "Zhang Zhaoxin" has been deeply engraved in the minds of the audience.
The author has scanned the list of active professional boxers in China today, except for Zhang Zhilei, almost all other famous domestic boxers are gathered at the small level, and there are very few high-quality boxers at the large level in China, and Zhang Zhaoxin's birth undoubtedly filled this deficiency in a timely manner. What is commendable is that Zhang Zhaoxin, a young man, is not fluttering because of the honor in front of him, and is training seriously step by step every day.
Next, Zhang Zhaoxin is likely to compete in a transition bout before the World Gold Fight in September-October, and then officially usher in another big test of his professional boxing career. At that time, will this Gansu guy be crowned the world champion and rewrite the history of China's large-level boxing? Let's wait and see!