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Hrgovic lands a right over the snappy jab of Dubois. And another. And another. He’s finding that right cross early. And another, timing a dip from Dubois. And another. Dubois returns and Hrgovic lands a left. A lot of aggression early from Dubois is creating windows for Hrgovic.

Parker upped the ante in the third, finding Zhang's body with some powerful shots, but Zhang landed a crisp straight left, sitting Parker on the canvas. He bounced back up but zhang boxer height followed up with a flurry to Parker's head to claim the fight's first 10-8 round.

What followed was a mix of success (11 straight wins from September 2016 to November ’20) and setbacks (a draw against Jerry Forrest in ’21, a narrow-decision defeat to Filip Hrgović in ’22). Last April, Zhang was tapped to face Joyce. It was a showcase fight for Joyce, the ’16 Olympic silver medalist who was next in line for a title shot and considered un-knock-out-able. Considered. Zhang, an 11-to-1 underdog, battered Joyce over six rounds until the referee mercifully stopped the fight. In the rematch five months later—a bout Zhang admonished Joyce’s handlers not to take—he needed just three rounds to put Joyce on the canvas.

But Zhang still faces a wait to get to Usyk as the WBO's No. 1 challenger. Usyk is expected to hold talks with Fury about a unification title fight, and IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgović is then next in line for a shot at Usyk.

Zinad’s corner is now screaming. Audibly screaming. Not words. Just guttural screams. All while Bivol marches their fighter around hits him. Zinad’s nose is now bloodied. Zinad’s jab is slowing Bivol down. It’s not landing, but he’s firing it into Bivol’s gloves and that’s simply stemming his forward momentum. This could become a slog.

The short answer to what a heavyweight boxer eats is, well, everything. Steak, chicken, different kinds of fish. During a recent visit to Jiang Nan, a Chinese-fusion joint Zhang frequents in Montclair, N.J., a plate filled with flat, oval-shaped meat arrives at the table. George slides a piece between a pair of chopsticks and asks Zhang to identify it. He always asks. In China, George was often offered food he couldn’t identify. Horse. Bull penis. Snake blood. "Cow tongue," says Zhang. The chopsticks drop. "Nope," says George. "Not eating that."

Both men cut serious figures as they took their seats at the top table, with Queensberry promoter Frank Warren describing it as "brilliant rematch against two guys of top quality" with "so much at stake".

After moving to the United States in 2014, Zhang rarely visited China to see his parents, wife and son (born 2010 ) because he had to reapply for single-entry working visa every time. After a fight in China, he failed to get a visa and was stuck there for ten months between October 2018 and July 2019, missing a fight with Andriy Rudenko scheduled for November 2018 in Monaco. He was stuck for too long and asked his manager to terminate his housing lease and sell his car in New Jersey. He missed another fight scheduled in March 2020 in the United States after attending his father's funeral. His flight scheduled for February 3, 2020, was two days after the United States implemented a COVID-19 travel ban on Chinese citizens. The 37-year-old Zhang had to wait another eight months for his next bout on November 7, 2020, with Devin Vargas on the undercard of the WBC lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Zhang fights Devin Vargas, who has lost to Andy Ruiz Jr, Junior Fa and Dominic Breazeale, on Saturday night in Florida. The Chinese contender is currently ranked No 11 with the WBO and No 15 with the IBF.

Round 5: They start the round jawing one another and the referee separates them. And to his credit, Zinad starts with some zip this round. He’s snapping the jab hard and following with the right. Bivol blocking it all, but this is good work. And he snaps a right hand in! Best punch of the night for Zinad lands.

Down a warehouse-lined stretch of Paterson, New Jersey, a heavyweight boxer pounds the punching bag in an otherwise quiet gym. Boxers aren’t an unusual sight in this small town just a few miles from Manhattan; most notable among homegrown products are former WBO junior welterweight titleholder Kendall Holt and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the hard-hitting middleweight contender who was the only man to stop Emile Griffith.

They reunited in October of 2017 when Zhang switched back to George after a stint with trainer Diego Rosario. Their first fight together in July, Zhang’s first in 10 months, resulted in Zhang’s sixth straight first-round knockout win. That’s more an indication of the level of competition he’s been fighting, but Zhang had been near an opponent befitting his aspirations a few days prior when he posed for photos next to Joshua at a press conference for the DAZN streaming app.

When he moved to the United States on March 8, 2014, he had to manage and self-finance aspects of his life which had previously been handled by the Henan Provincial Combat and Weightlifting Center. Cooking for himself was the biggest challenge of his early days in the US. In his first few months as a professional, he spent more time learning how to properly cook noodles than he did working in the ring.