About 2,5 years ago he was presented as the next big thing in boxing. Trained by Freddie Roach he was rising fast and was granted a world title shot. He lost a clear decision to Amnat Ruenroeng earlier this year and that's the last thing we ever seen or heared from him. He's 34 and has no future in pro boxing at the moment. Will we ever see him again? B.t.w : It's a ****ty year for Chinese Pro Boxing anyway as their other cheerboy Ik Yang was dismantled by Rene Cuenca.
There's still Rex Tso, he was supposed to get a title shot against Kono but I don't think he would beat Kono. Kono just dispatched of Kameda relatively easily. But if Tso wins, that would be an amazing feat. Only boxer to ever come from Hong Kong and a world champion? :admin:happy One of my favourite fighters, he's absurdly exciting to watch
Zou overachieved imo, but he clearly had some talent unfortunately he clearly was somewhat stuck in the amateur mindset. Ik Yang on the other hand was a ****ing idiot, dude would land a hard punch and instead of following up, he would make the goofiest face i've ever seen and showboat, what a dumbass.
We'll see him again, but he was never the next big thing. He was a decorated amateur with a lot of flaws and ineffective movement. Everyone knew TR signed him to gain entry into the Chinese market and hyped him a bit to the Asian markets. Any reasonable fan knew his skills were limited
Skill is the refinement of talent. He was talented no doubt, but he never refined his skills...that's why his movement, switching stances and punch technique was ineffective in the pros. He's a got a great amateur style. He can stick and move very well, which is perfect for the amateur game for 3-5 rounds. In the pros, ineffective movement and stance switching only wasted his energy and made him ineffective in a 12 round fight. He was so open in the later rounds in all his fights because he gassed. GGG is what you called skilled, because he refined everything to be as efficient as he can. Shiming is raw and unrefined. Talented yes, but not that skilled.
China is ( obviously) a huge market. He was being pushed so that the sport could gain popularity. They'd be better off promoting baseball. Basketball is already huge in China.
It's more fun to play...you don't want your kids to grow up to be a boxer, but being a ball player is fine. I don't see schools in China allowing boxing teams among 12-18 year olds, but baseball teams at the same age would be cool. Softball for girls, hardball for boys. There are quite a few Chinese (Taiwanese) ballplayers in Major League Baseball, as well as Koreans and Japanese. Some of them are excellent players.
It was more of a Top Rank thing than an HBO thing. It was all about gaining access to China, and specifically, turning Macau into the next Vegas with guys like Zou and Manny (they really had that spot ready for Zou) headlining. Top Rank was banking on that, which is also why they pursued Murata so hard. The loss hurt, but Zou was popular. The bigger problem is that Macau gaming has been spiraling downward at a pretty freakish rate for a number of reasons. If the market was still strong there, we'd see Zou fighting more. He was never meant to headline for U.S. audiences, and Top Rank didn't need him to.