Glory Promotions: Zhāng Zhìlěi vs. Don Haynesworth & Wulan Tuolehazi vs. Jay-r Sarin Raquinel RBR

Round 2

Haynesworth is doing nothing but pump double jabs at the body while lurching in, and then raising his forearms to grind into Zhilei and tie him up. Zhilei is pushing Haynesworth's left glove aside to create room for a left cross, but is only skimming his temple with it. Slapping right hooks still a good scoring option for Zhilei, and his go-to. Haynesworth is dropped by a shoveling underhanded left and hobbles around with his guard up the rest of the round.

10-8 Zhilei

20-17 Zhilei

 

Round 3

Haynesworth is clinching as much as he can but Zhilei peels him off, curling his finger padding around Haynesworth's wrists to grab them and tug free, then simply tossing his opponent a couple of feet away to resume flicking right jabs and swinging in the battering ram left cross from outside. Haynesworth is slapped in the face with a few right hooks as he tries sidestepping to clinch from a new angle, then eats a clean left. Haynesworth is hurt and backed into the ropes. Zhilei flurries away like mad, hitting mostly gloves but with no response from a helpless looking Haynesworth, and the ref jumps in.

TKO3!!

 

I'm not convinced that was a real contest. Haynesworth was legitimately getting hurt, I think, but he also didn't put up much as much of a fight as I think he's capable of.

He fought on even terms with Bryant Jennings on the Lomachenko vs. Rigondeaux undercard, FFS. The result was the same, TKO3, but in that contest he was doing well until By-By cracked his jaw with a single big right hand. In this one, he was never in the fight, even remotely - and I don't think it was because Zhang is better than Jennings...

 

Anybody else feel unsure what to believe after that one?

I mean, it looked a bit more "real" than past Zhang footage I've seen, and I'm trying my best to be open-minded and not come in with the preconceived assumption that one hundred percent of his fights are fixed...but something was definitely off. It was like Haynesworth was pulled aside in the dressing room and told he'd get an under-the-table bonus of quadruple his purse if he just treated it like a spar where he isn't allowed to attempt to hurt Zhang.

 

Nah, this is beneath AJ, you would have to believe. Aside from the blow to his credibility, Hearn would lose money on it, staging a Zhang fight anywhere outside China.

He's more of a primo WBC title challenger, if you catch my drift.

(although, unfortunately, the one major org that ranks Zhang - WBO, at #6 - does put him on more of a Joshua trajectory...)

 

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I'm not sure Zhang could legitimately defeat Shannon Briggs, let alone Takam or Chisora.

 

Can you imagine how Usyk vs. Zhang would look? It would be like the Keanu Reeves bullet dodging scene in the Matrix, except in real-time and more impressive. Usyk might pull a Willie Pep and not get touched once.