Shortly after the Olympics, Dino Duva was invited to Beijing to consult for the Chinese Boxing Federation. In Zhang, he saw not just talent but unprecedented ambition. At the time, Chinese boxers didn’t turn pro. Few of the country’s athletes did. “When you’re a national athlete in China, you get treated very well,” says Duva. “You’re supported by the government. They support your family. They give you bonuses and pay you well. But if you decide to make the move to become professional, they cut you off.” Zhang, Duva says, wanted more.
Zhang was housemates with middleweight Meng Fanlong and lightweight Wang Zhimin in New Jersey when he first came to the US. Along with Zou Shiming, these four were the first wave of boxers ever released by the Chinese authorities to turn professional.
In 2019, a year before the official closure of Roc Nation’s boxing division, the Lane brothers negotiated Zhang’s release with Matchroom Boxing USA, which Duva, again, had cut a deal with. In 2024, Zhang’s co-manager recalled his promoter tried to stop him leaving by intimidation, dragging him into legal battles and refusing to line him up in fights. Brothers Tommy and Terry Lane, sons of boxing referee Mills Lane, joined Zhang as advisers and helped guide him out of trouble. It was not clear whether this incident was referring to Zhang’s termination of contract in November 2014 or in 2019.
Among the Apatani people in Arunachal Pradesh in India, women used to tattoo lines on the chin, and from the forehead to the tip of the nose, as well as wear large nose plugs. The reason for this is unknown, but it is believed that the tattoos serve as a way to make women less beautiful and protect them from abductions. Men also had a T-shaped tattoo on the chin. These traditions were practiced up until around 1974.
This will certainly make Tyson look less intimidating, but that’s probably what he’s going for. You don’t stand up for Lance Armstrong unless you have gotten in touch with your sensitive side, which seems to be the case for the former heavyweight champion. Good for Mike.
It’s hoped a fight between Joshua and Zhang in Beijing, as well as other boxers emerging, will encourage the next generation of talent in China to take up the sport. The hope is that the number of globally recognized Chinese fighters will continue to grow as a result.
Round 5: BIG RIGHT HAND lands for Zinad. Bivol guilty of coming forward without much punching. Bivol scores with a nice right. Given the odds against him, Zinad has announced himself in the fight and claimed one round on this card.
But an iconic tattoo having a whole different shape takes the cake. Just imagine a prime boxer with raw power, arrested multiple times, but sporting cute hearts on his face! A prime sentiment on X (@JiujitsuOtter) reacted “I’d buy him a beer for having the heart not to do it and made the most iconic tattoo in sports history instead.”
Chinese officials did, too. In 1998, Zhang moved to Zhengzhou, the site in yahoo.com of a provincial training center. Success followed. A silver medal at the 2004 university championships. A bronze at the world championships in ’07. In ’08, Zhang claimed his silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. He began studying not just boxing but also boxers. Mike Tyson. Evander Holyfield. Lennox Lewis. Not just their skills but also their fortitude. “Great heavyweights, when they fight into the last couple of rounds they’re all gassed out, but they are still throwing punches,” says Zhang. “At the end of the fight it’s all mental. That’s when you see a fighting spirit.”
The baddest man on the planet. The multiple time heavyweight boxing champion of the world. ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson had a tough beginning to life, but he never let it define him. Despite his humble beginnings, he was able to rise up and take over a whole division of elite athletes in the r
On 15 January 2024, it was announced that Zhang would be facing former WBO champion Joseph Parker, with the fight scheduled to occur on 8 March 2024 as the co-main event of the Knockout Chaos event, at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena. Zhang was defeated by Parker in a majority points decision, in which two judges had it for Parker, 114–112 and 115–111, and one judge had it even at 113–113.
To curb expenses, the boxer also sold his upscale mansion in Farmington, Connecticut, to rapper 50 Cent for a little more than $4 million. He crashed on friends’ couches and slept in shelters until he landed in Phoenix, Arizona. There, in 2005, he purchased a home in Paradise Valley for $2.1 million, which he financed by endorsing products and making cameos on television and in boxing exhibiti