After two of the year’s best heavyweight performances, Zhilei Zhang is now waiting in the wings for his next contest and has sent a warning to Tyson Fury.
Chinese heavyweight Zhang twice came up against Joe Joyce this year and twice he stopped him, the first time by inflicting such sustained damage on an injured eye that the referee had to stop the fight.
They were breakout wins for the now 40-year-old who goes by the name of ‘Big Bang’ and, since then, he has been busy calling out just about all of the most high-profile heavyweights in the world.
His record currently sits at 26 wins from 28 bouts with an 80.77% knockout-out ratio. His only loss was a controversial one to Filip Hrgovic in August 2022 while he also drew with Jerry Forrest in February 2021.
Zhang is not only a former Olympic silver medalist but also the current WBO interim world heavyweight champion so he very much has his eyes set on fighting the winner of Fury versus Usyk.
Despite being first in line for a world title shot, all belts are tied up with an undisputed bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk following the Brit’s close split decision win against MMA star Francis Ngannou.
Speaking to FightHype, Zhang was asked about how Fury gets on in that fight on February 17.
“If Tyson Fury fights the same way he fought Ngannou, it will be a very long and difficult night for Fury.”
Ngannou dropped Fury in the third round of their fight and bullied ‘The Gypsy King’ in the clinch.
