Zhang was boring tonight

Zhilei "Big Bore" Zhang is 40 years old.

 

I'm a Zhang fan, but I knew he was in trouble when I saw his flabby stomach and heard his weight. What the hell was he thinking? His attempt to conserve energy prevented him from having any offense at all.

 

He's not exactly a high output guy. His excitement comes from his ridiculous one shot power which might be the best in the division.

But 291 was a bit idiotic, even for a huge melon-headed guy like him. No boxer should ever be that high unless they've got gigantism and can't help it.

 

He was sucking for air by the 5th round. He had Parker on you know what street and let him off the hook. Parker and Andy Lee had a good game plan, just like they had for Wilder.

 

Zhang is screwed if someone doesn't stand infront of him and he was never going to pressure and beat down Parker like Joyce did.

 

I thought Zhang would KO Parker, and he almost did.

However, Zhang looked really slow to react to anything unlike Parker and his stamina has always been poor.

 

Zhang was the same fighter that fought Joyce and Hrgovic apart from the fact he was a little heavier than before, just 4lbs more than the one the poleaxed Joyce. Fact is he is a pure counter puncher, he creates offence from his opponents offence and guys like Hrgovic and Joyce who come forward and walk down their opponents will always give him opportunities to work.

Parker in contrast spent a lot of the fight feinting and keeping Zhang contained, when a fighter doesn't throw it's not because they don't want to throw it's because they were not allowed to throw and Zhang couldn't get a read on Parker like Joyce because Parker was so fast and so often switching up his attacks, leaving him unable to find opportunities to throw his counters.

Fact is people overrated Zhang off the Hrgovic and Joyce fights, much like how people overrated Joyce from the Parker fight. One or two fights, especially against similar style fighters prove much. I picked Parker to win because he is simply more proven and was a very different proposition for Zhang, though I'll admit I wasn't confident in my pick because again I didn't want to overrate Parker of the Wilder win alone. But I think Parker now has definitely proved, he's a better boxer than before, he again found a way to win, this time vs a counter puncher which previously he tended struggled with. I'd be interested to see how this version would do vs Joshua.

 

How easy you all write Zhang off now.

 

Zhang was typical Zhang tonight, a stylistic nightmare for Joe Joyce but just a relatively tough nights work for the other top heavyweights to beat

 

Parker wore Zhang down taking him into the late rounds, the fight literally put me to sleep later on...

 

What part of my post said I am writing him off? I said he's the same fighter as before, same guy that took Hrgovic 12 hard close rounds, same guy who KO'ed Joyce twice. If I was writing him off I'd come up with some BS, like Zhang was too old, Zhang is shot, he was drained at the weight lol.

Match Zhang up against another opponent who plays to his strengths like Dubois and see how quickly jump back on his hype train. Me I was never on the hype train, I rated him but he was never the monster he was made out to be. Good fighter, top 10 for sure but he has limitations and weaknesses like most fighters that can be exploited.

 

I think Zhang should have just gone for the KO early. He could have done it.

291 is a ridiculous weight.

He was 38 when he fought well against Hrgovic, but the different between 38 and 40 is pretty big as an athlete. He probably just doesn't have any stamina left.

 

Zhang is a 5 round fighter.