Zhilei Zhang has been involved in some of the best heavyweight match-ups of the last two years.
The Olympic Silver Medalist stopped the previously unstoppable Joe Joyce twice in 2023 before stepping through the ropes with Joseph Parker in March of this year. Despite having his man down twice, ‘Big Bang’ lost on the cards.
He bounced back in style by knocking out – and potentially retiring – former world champion Deontay Wilder. Since then, Zhang has been called out relentlessly by in-form heavy-hitter Martin Bakole, who, after his knockout win over Jared Anderson, said he was the ‘most avoided man on the planet.’
Speaking to Box Nation, Zhang confirmed that he would instead be activating his rematch clause with Parker.
“[Parker] was always the one on top of my hit list. We have a contract, I’m honouring the contract. It is my contractual right to have a rematch and this what I am hoping for … I am aiming for [the knockout]. After the first fight people have different opinions. Some people think I won, others think he won. But I learnt a lot from that fight and I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Asked specifically about Bakole’s prediction that he would knock him out because he’s ‘too old’, Zhang said he prefers to do his talking in the ring.
“After Bakole’s win – I think it was a beautiful win against [Jared] Anderson – he’s been calling out my name. He says he will knock me out in five rounds and then it turned to eight rounds … When they fight me they always look at my age and think he’s old I can take care of him, I can drag him to deeper waters, ever since the Hrgovic fight they’ve been saying the same thing, but as soon as they get in the ring with me things become different. I believe we talk through fists, not all the talking like that.”
He said he will welcome any challenge and remains open to the match-up in the future. Fans will be gutted at missing out on the potential of Zhang-Bakole for now and hope that the Congolese heavyweight lands an equally intriguing fight next.
