Zhilei Zhang is enjoying a late surge in his boxing career.
The Chinese heavyweight is 41-years-old and in the last 18 months has clocked up his best victories to date. First, he beat Joe Joyce by stoppage in back-to-back fights and then he knocked out Deontay Wilder inside five rounds, but did lose to Joseph Parker in between.
He is now chasing a first world title shot and for many years was hoping it would come against Anthony Joshua, who beat him back in the London 2012 Olympics, but Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois in their IBF world title showdown last month has put paid to that.
Speaking to Seconds Out, Zhang spoke about the mental difficulties for ‘AJ’ of being on top and staying on top before warning against a rematch.
“I believe Joshua has been on top of the pyramid for years. And when you’re on top of the food chain that definitely changes your mentality a bit.
“With this defeat I don’t know where it puts him mentally but I believe the rematch will be a worse-case scenario for Joshua. I don’t think he is ever going to fight me again after this loss. We’ll see what happens, it’s his personal decision but I strongly recommend him not to go into the rematch.”
He was then asked if Joshua should rematch Dubois, rebuild once more or retire and didn’t hesitate to side with a poll of boxing fans that said Joshua should hang up his gloves.
“My first reaction was I’m with the 45% of your audience [who said] retire. I think it’s a career-ending rematch if he takes that route.”
Despite what Zhang and many others have said, Joshua himself is keen to have a second shot at Dubois and Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh has already spoken about it potentially happening on February 22, 2025.
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