China’s Zou is primed for biggest battle yet

HE IS a two-time Olympic gold medallist and reigning world champion, but Chinese boxing star Zou Shiming is eyeing an even greater prize: making the sport big in his homeland.

The 36-year-old defends his World Boxing Organization ( WBO) flyweight title for the first time on July 28 when he faces Japan’s Sho Kimura in Shanghai, and is targeting a fourth-round knockout.

After a brilliant amateur career, Zou turned professional in 2013 – at the relatively late age of 31 – and last November won the world title in Las Vegas to improve to a pro record of 9-1 with two KOs.

Now he wants to harness his fame to put boxing on a par at home with more popular sports.

“In the West they already have a long history of boxing and everyone of all ages watch, but in China this is still something we have to work hard on,” he said.

“We want to o tell everyone in China that Chinese people have a Zou Shiming who brought back k the belt from Las Vegas and d kept it here, so that everyonee will say: ‘If Zou Shiming g can, so can other Chinese.’” inese.’”

With the endnd of his boxing careereer in sight – he declinedclined to say whenn he would retire – the affable Zou is s turning his hand to promotion and mentoring the next generation. He may train boxers when he hangs up his gloves. He turned professional with US promoters Top Rank, whose founder and chief executive Bob Arum had his eye on t the lucrative China market. Zou is promoti promoting himself for the Kimu-Kim ra fight but insis insists he will work withwi Top Rank again.

Zou won bronze at the Athens Olympics in 2004, then gold at the Beijing Games four years later, before successfully defending his title at the London games in 2012 to put boxing back on the map in China.

Add three amateur world titles and it’s easy to see why, if anyone can make boxing big in China then Zou can.

So why are there no other Chinese boxers even close to matching Zou?

Unlike other c ountr i es, where boxers usually turn professional after a good Olympics, China’s Soviet-style sports authorities are reluctant to relinquish control of their amateurs. And a good amateur does not necessarily become a successful professional because the styles are so different, according to Zou.

Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong banned boxing for being too violent, and it only returned to the public consciousness in 1979 when Muhammad Ali visited China at the invitation of then-leader Deng Xiaoping.

Zou knows he does not have many fights left.

“I don’t want to say goodbye. But the hardest part for an athlete to face is injuries and age,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow I will say I can’t fight anymore.

“But as long as I can, I will not say goodbye to boxing because I’d hate to part with it.”