Anthony Joshua, the unbeaten holder of the IBF heavyweight title, is being groomed for stardom; global stardom. So much so that his promoter Eddie Hearn is already looking at having his star fighter box in what could be a huge event in China in the coming years, this in addition to trying to make Joshua a household name in the US. Hearn has spoken to the media about his plans to take 2012 Olympic gold medal winner Joshua to China, to possibly face former Olympic rival Zhang Zhilei.
Hearn says such a fight could possibly attract a pay-per-view audience of millions in a couple of years.
“I think Joshua’s going to be a global figure, and therefore I’ve got to give him a global platform,” Hearn said. “I was in Shanghai last week and we were talking. He’s [Zhilei] a heavyweight who is almost 7-feet tall and we could do it with a pay-per-view audience of tens of millions of Chinese people watching it.”
Zhilei, a former amateur standout who won two bronze medals at the world amateur championships and won silver at London 2012 – losing to Joshua, on points in the quarter finals – has romped to an 8-0(8) pro record since going professional in August of 2014. The 33-year-old southpaw is also being groomed for stardom and a fight between he and Joshua would already be a massive event in China. In a couple of year’s time, even more so.
Boxing is massive in the far east and an event the size of which Hearn has his eye on could indeed happen. In fact, back when Zhilei was about to make his pro debut, his team, consisting of Dino Duva, spoke of the monstrous potential of a Joshua-Zhilei rematch at pro level:
“The Chinese market is a new growth explosion, it’s the wave of the future” Duva said prior to Zhilei’s pro debut in 2014. “Something I’d love to do and have already spoken to Eddie Hearn about it, is bringing Zhang to London to fight. And I tell you this, in two or three years, if they both keep on developing and progressing the way that they can progress, a Zhang-Anthony Joshua fight will be the biggest fight in all of boxing. That will be the biggest heavyweight fight in the world. The rematch will be the huge.”
But can both giants remain unbeaten? Joshua is busy defending his IBF belt and is looking at other, equally big fights in the UK, while Zhilei has boxed all but one of his pro bouts in America and has yet to face anything approaching a top contender. Still, if the two can avoid defeat, and if the Chinese star can defeat a recognisable name, maybe the huge event of him against Joshua can happen in China. To most fans there would only be one winner, but some box-office records might be broken all the same.
