Did 300 million people in China really stay up till midnight on Saturday to watch double Olympic boxing champion Zou Shiming make his professional debut, as ring announcer Michael Buffer claimed? The fight had impressive broadcast coverage in China, but given the relative lack of buzz on Weibo, 300 million seems about 250 million too high…
Then again, that’s boxing promoters for you. If you read some of Top Rank’s tweets of the night – eg “Zou Shiming finishes the fight the way he started it: with slick, quick movement and lots of punches.” – you’d have thought Zou already looks like a world beater. That’s certainly not the impression I had, as I wrote in Monday’s Sports Talk column:
The world saw a new Zou Shiming on Saturday night as he made his professional boxing debut. As expected, he beat 18-year-old Mexican Eleazar Valenzuela, but the humble, calm persona that had helped Zou win three Olympic medals – two of them gold – had been replaced with a hyped up version of his former self, and it nearly led to his downfall.
Zou Shiming is a man with a thousand names this week. Known variously by his growing international entourage as Zoo, Zow, Zoe, Joe, Joo and Jow (and that’s before we even get to his given name), the boxer courteously responds to all and sundry with an infectious smile, and willingly answers the same questions over and over again, always giving full and thoughtful soundbites.
It’s this understated charm that may actually turn out to be more useful to Zou and his team than his boxing talents, which, after winning three Olympic medals (2 gold, 1 bronze), are already legendary.
In all the excitement over Li Na’s thrilling run to the Australian Open final last week, another sporting development was largely overlooked – and it could prove to be even more significant for Chinese sport.
Two-time Olympic boxing gold medalist Zou Shiming has turned professional, signing for US promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank group, and will make his pro debut on April 6 in Macao.
