According to Bob Arum, who of course, co-promotes WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, Andy Ruiz is not likely to be the next challenger for Fury. Instead, as the Top Rank boss said when speaking with Ringside Reporter, Zhilei Zhang is now the “frontrunner” to face Fury.
A while back, Fury put out a short video in which he teased us with imminent news of “an absolute monster fight” he would be involved in “very, very soon.” Not long after that, former champ Ruiz posted on social media how the fight between he and Fury was “official.” It wasn’t, as Fury’s other co-promoter, Frank Warren, soon made clear.
And now, as per Arum to Ringside Reporter, it could be Zhang for Fury, this in July.
“No, not really,” Arum said when asked if it could be Ruiz next for Fury. “We’re focusing on the Chinese kid that beat Joe Joyce, Zhilei Zhang, he’s the frontrunner for that fight. It’s likely for July, we’re trying to close that out over this weekend.”
Zhang is no “kid,” at age 39, but the towering Chinese southpaw is big, strong and powerful, and he is coming off two good showings in his close, debatable decision loss to Filip Hrgovic (with plenty of people feeling Zhang won the fight last August), and the stoppage win over Joyce.
Zhang, who is neither fast of hand nor slow of hand (deceptive, you might call him), is a great story and, no disrespect to Ruiz, his is a more interesting challenge of Fury. Can Zhang, with his combination of stance, strength, power and occasional trickiness, serve to give Fury a hard night of things? Maybe. Zhang is hungry, he trains hard and he has said he will be ready for Fury if the fight can indeed be made in July.
Let’s hope Arum and co can get this fight over the line. Approaching the half-way mark of the year as we are, Fury needs to get a fight nailed down soon. Fury Vs. Zhang is not the fight we wanted (and still want) but as a replacement fight for Fury Vs. Oleksandr Usyk, Fury Vs. Zhang is something to get excited about. Or intrigued about.
Will this fight happen at Wembley if it does happen? And how many fans will share the sense of intrigue needed to buy a ticket? I don’t know about you, but this writer thinks Fury-Zhang is a solid fight, and one that is no formality for the soon to be 35 year old Fury.
