Former two-weight world champion David Haye has made his prediction ahead of the upcoming ‘massive fight’ between two of the hardest hitters in the heavyweight division, Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang.
Before their last outings the pair were in touching distance of a title shot, but having both lost to the same man in Joseph Parker, they now appear to be in last chance saloon.
Wilder was resoundingly outclassed by Parker, who won a near shut out on the cards – whereas Zhang looked to have the fight wrapped up after knocking the New Zealander down twice, but ran out of steam and lost a majority decision.
Speaking to Boxing News ahead of the fight, Haye was full of praise for Parker’s last two performances.
“Massive fight for both guys coming off of a loss, well both coming off those losses to Joseph Parker, very very interesting fight.
If Deontay Wilder can bring back the old magic, if he can throw punches because he didn’t really throw anything last time, it was a very strange performance, or maybe it was Joseph Parker nullifying him, maybe people aren’t giving Joseph Parker the credit he deserves from deactivating ‘The Bronze Bomber’.”
When it came to picking a winner, Haye believes the big Chinese heavyweight is “tailor-made” for the “Bronze Bomber”.
“You would assume the way that Zhang eats right hands down the middle that he’s tailor-made for Wilder.
If Wilder can go back to anything remotely close to his old magic he should stop Zhang.”
After Artur Beterbiev withdrew from his undisputed light-heavyweight clash against Dmitry Bivol due to injury, Wilder-Zhang will now top a card which pits five of Eddie Hearn’s fighters against five of Frank Warren’s.
