Zhilei Zhang says he won’t repeat the same mistakes from his previous fight when he takes on ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Deontay Wilder this Saturday night.
Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) states that he underestimated Joseph Parker last December and tried to knock him out with a single shot after dropping him in the third round.
Zhilei’s Lesson Learned: Power Isn’t Everything
This time, Zhang plans to use his skills against the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KO) and not look for a knockout in their 12-round clash on the 5 vs. 5 card at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Wilder and his trainer, Malik Scott, insist things will be different on their side, mining that we’ll see a retro version of the ‘Bronze Bomber’ from 2015, who will be better than ever.
That’s hard to believe, as Wilder turns 39 in October, and his punch resistance, which has never been particularly good, appears to have deteriorated. Along with it, his courage appears to have abandoned him, and he’s fighting scared like he’s protecting the glass in his chin.
“Totally different. I was completely underestimating Joseph Parker. This time is different,” said Zhilei Zhang to Queensberry about what is different this time around for his fight against Deontay Wilder compared to his previous fight.
“I was absolutely in love with my heavy shot. I was trying to knock him out with one punch,” Zhang continued about his last fight against Parker. “This time, I’ve learned my lesson, and everything will be different.”
You can’t blame Zhang for going for the knockout against Parker, considering he had him down in the third, and it looked like he was ready to be finished off. What went wrong was Zhang’s gas tank. He quickly grew fatigued and couldn’t get his second wind after expending a lot of energy in the third.
Zhilei’s Ready to F* S*** Up
“The third round. He fell in love with his power. He started to celebrate, and he lost focus,” said Zhang’s trainer, Shaun George, when asked where things went wrong in Zhilei’s loss to Parker last December.
Parker wasn’t impressive. He was cautious, trying not to get hit and picking spots to land shots to win the rounds. Parker was beatable, but Zhang couldn’t pressure him like Joe Joyce in his 11th round knockout win in 2022.
“He understands it. We spoke about it. Ever since that fight, he’s been on another level mentally, physically, and everything else,” said George about Zhang having learned his lesson. “On Saturday night, it’s going to be something crazy. We’re going to f*** his s*** up here.”
We’ll see if Zhang learned his lesson. His cardio was the main reason he lost to Parker. If that area hasn’t improved for this fight, he could lose to Wilder because he won’t be victorious if he’s not throwing punches after the first three rounds.
“Deontay Wilder has a right hand. Everything else he does wrong,” said George. “He’s allowed to do a lot of different things in the ring. The referees allow him to do different things. [Illegally] Stiff arm people, slap with the back of the hand, cuffing and holding.
“He’s allowed to do these things. I’m hoping the referee this time around doesn’t allow him to get away with these things by warning from round one to round twelve doing the same things. He gets away with these things because he’s Deontay Wilder [an ex] world champion, but Zhilei is a different story now,” said George.
Many referees don’t police things like stiff arms, rabbit punching, holding & hitting, and excessive clinching. That’s par for the course. The only thing that you can count on referees watching for are low blows. Everything else is pretty much allowed by a lot of the referees, who let it go on without warning, penalizing and disqualifying.
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