It's rumoured Derek is to have a warm-up bout on the Povetkin-Whyte 2 card before fighting China's heavyweight prospect, Zhilei Zhang, on a Matchroom card in the summer. Southpaw's aren't something Chisora is a fan of, but I think he's fought enough of them recently to get a knack for the way they fight. It's an interesting crossroads fight and I doubt either would take a backward step. How do we see it going?
Both 37 years old (allegedly), really don’t see what this fight offers Chisora apart from another payday. Obviously Eddie will be hoping Zhang wins and sets up either AJ or Fury defending their belts in Beijin for huge money.
Having seen Zhang fight, and knowing how well curated his record is compared to his actual ability. I am very confident that Chisora wins via an early KO and that Chisora doesnt need a warm up fight. But if he feels rusty it cant do him any harm.
Zhang is relatively old even by Heavyweight standards, has a very padded record and most importantly is not a very good boxer. To sell any fight of his on PPV against Joshua in the UK would be a massive ask even for Hearn. Chisora likely would beat him if he trained diligently, Zhang really would struggle at even European level.
Chinese people will be told it is a pay per prawn cracker where the Chinese Brits know is is a pay per Gu tesco pudding
Clearly to boost PPVs for Whyte v Povetkin 2. At the same time, I would have thought that Hearn would want to keep Zhang undefeated for when crowds are allowed back to try and sell AJ v Zhang to the Chinese market.
Think he’s looking at Zhang’s age, the current climate not changing too much, Chisora’s semi-popularity and Zhang enticing a whole new audience for PPV buys or subscriptions and though **** it.
Would be very surprised that they put Zhang in with anyone like that. My understanding was Zhang was practically a shoe in to fight AJ in 2022 whether AJ wins or loses against Fury. I was under the impression they will keep Zhang unbeaten and get him to Top 10 in a governing body. I heard rumours that after the fury fights AJ win or lose AJ will look to essentially go on a world tour which would help the DAZN subscribers globally in a similar way Hearn mentioned working with Canelo. Rumours Fury will retire after the AJ fights regardless and AJ will continue and fight the Usyk vs Joyce winner, the belts will be released also if neccesary. My understanding was AJ intends to go another 3-5 years and a plan was to fight Zhang in China late 2022 and Bakole in Africa on top of a fight in Vegas to put right the Ruiz American performance.
