ZHILEI ZHANG wasn’t stunned when he heard that Anthony Joshua’s subsequent opponent will be Francis Ngannou.
The Chinese heavyweight was one of the names linked with Joshua following the Brit’s one-sided win over Otto Wallin and in addition Joseph Parker’s dominant win over Deontay Wilder, Joshua’s proposed subsequent opponent, final month.
On Friday (January 5), nevertheless, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn introduced on X (Twitter) that his star man would face Ngannou in Riydah, Saudi Arabia. It will be the second skilled fight for the previous UFC Heavyweight champion having pushed Tyson Fury all the best way on October 28.
“You can’t help [but] think what is happening to boxing right now,” Zhang mentioned when chatting with Boxing News.
“My staff approached them [Joshua’s team]. We had this dialog after which subsequent factor you recognize he’s preventing Ngannou.
“I can’t really say I’m disappointed,” he continued. “It’s a matter of personal choice. When you look at Ngannou, he’s somebody from a different sport. All of sudden he’s the cash cow. Everybody thinks if I were to fight Ngannou I’ll make a ton of money. What is boxing at the end of the day? Is it a business or is it a competitive sport? That’s the question.”
Zhang, in the meantime, can take consolation from the truth that in 2023 he was one of the heavyweight division’s shining lights. His two victories over Joe Joyce, each ending nicely inside the gap, proved that the 40-year-old is a power to be reckoned with. And Zhang instructed BN he’s “cautiously optimistic” about making his return on the Joshua-Ngannou undercard.
In fact, Joshua-Zhang would have made for a way more interesting prospect for March than Joshua-Ngannou. But Zhang, who Eddie Hearn used to advertise, by no means had excessive hopes he would get the chance to tackle the 2012 Olympic Gold medallist.
“I never thought this fight would be made,” Zhang mentioned. “I think there’s one more person, Eddie Hearn, who will not let Anthony Joshua fight me. It’s too much of a risk. When I signed with Matchroom a couple of years ago that was one of the conversations we had. My management team flew to London and sat down with everybody to talk about it. It’s been years since that, and this fight never materialised. They know how to successfully avoid this.”
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