{"id":298041,"date":"2023-12-01T10:25:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T10:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=298041"},"modified":"2023-12-01T10:25:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T10:25:04","slug":"exclusive-zhilei-zhang-reveals-he-held-talks-to-fight-anthony-joshua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/boxing\/exclusive-zhilei-zhang-reveals-he-held-talks-to-fight-anthony-joshua\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Zhilei Zhang reveals he held talks to fight Anthony Joshua"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span>EXCLUSIVE<\/span> Zhilei Zhang reveals he held talks to fight Anthony Joshua after his bout with Filip Hrgovi\u0107 last year&#8230; as he claims Eddie Hearn &#8216;liked the idea&#8217; of the heavyweight match-up<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Zhilei Zhang has revealed how he was in talks to fight Anthony Joshua\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He claimed his team flew out to London to thrash out negotiations for the fight\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How compelling Katie Taylor toppled Chantelle Cameron in Dublin bloodbath &#8211; The Hook\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Boxing star Zhilei Zhang has revealed that he was in talks to fight Anthony Joshua before negotiations eventually broke down.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese heavyweight has recorded back-to-back wins over Joshua&#8217;s compatriot Joe Joyce, with a devastating right hook earning him victory in their September bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 40-year-old produced two emphatic performances to hand Joyce his first professional losses however, he&#8217;s now revealed he had actually been in talks to fight Joshua at that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After Zhang suffered defeat against\u00a0Filip Hrgovi\u0107 in August 2022, on the same night that Joshua was handed a consecutive defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Chinese heavyweight claims that his teams were in talk with Joshua&#8217;s over a potential bout &#8211; as both stars looked to bounce back from a disappointing defeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/01\/09\/78461957-12813491-image-a-6_1701423332267.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zhilei Zhang has revealed that he was in talks to fight Anthony Joshua before negotiations eventually broke down<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/01\/09\/78461963-12813491-image-a-11_1701423534476.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zhang claims his team flew out to London to negotiate a fight with Joshua but the potential bout eventually collapsed\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/01\/09\/78462765-12813491-image-a-12_1701424209585.jpg\" height=\"414\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zhang claimed the bout was tipped to happen after his defeat to\u00a0Filip Hrgovic (R)<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Mail Sport, via FreeBets,\u00a0Zhang said: &#8216;It was after his fight wi<span>th Usyk where I was the chief support fighting Hrgovic after that event.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My team is talking to his team and my team even flew to London to meet his people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;And I believe what I heard was Eddie [Hearn] liked the idea, but when it comes down to himself or the managers around him, I&#8217;m not sure. I really wanted it. That&#8217;s what I can tell you.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We had multiple communications between our team and his team about me fighting him. Maybe we can [fight] again in in the future, but the future [is] unknown.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Since both men were dealt defeats in Saudi Arabia back in August last year, Zhang has excelled in his career &#8211; after the convincing wins over Joyce in April and September.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Joshua has also recorded two wins since then. The first was an unconvincing decision victory over Jermaine Franklin before he knocked out Robert Helenius &#8211; who stepped in on late notice, just days before the bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Had a bout between Zhang and Joshua come to fruition, it would not be the first time that the two heavyweights had shared the ring together.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They previously crossed paths back at amateur level during the 2012 Olympics in London &#8211; where Zhang was beaten by Joshua on points in the quarter-finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on that match-up, Zhang said: &#8216;That fight was in 2012 in London. He represented the host country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I knew I had to knock him out to win that fight, just because he [was] from London. If you look at the fight, he dropped me in the third round, but if you look closely he was stepping on my foot and I was not able to get my foot out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/01\/09\/78462511-12813491-image-a-13_1701424212453.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zhang has since gone on to beat British star Joe Joyce (L) in consecutive bouts<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/01\/09\/78462783-12813491-image-a-14_1701424214865.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joshua had back-to-back defeats against Oleksandr Usyk (R) when Zhang&#8217;s team supposedly were in talks to organise a heavyweight clash<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That&#8217;s how the knock down happened. Eventually I lost to a close decision and it&#8217;s OK to me because it&#8217;s just not a big deal&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>While a professional bout with Joshua was once on the cards,\u00a0Zhang, the WBO interim world champion is confirmed as mandatory challenger for that belt.<\/p>\n<p>After victory over Joyce in September, he called out Tyson Fury, asking the crowd: &#8216;Do you want me to shut him up?&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, he may have to wait for the Gypsy King and Usyk to sort out who holds all the titles but even at 40 he looks more sprightly by every fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2023\/10\/25\/The%20Hook_Promo_Desktop.636.png\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/article-12813491\/Zhilei-Zhang-reveals-held-talks-fight-Anthony-Joshua-bout-Filip-Hrgovi-year-claims-Eddie-Hearn-liked-idea-heavyweight-match-up.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXCLUSIVE Zhilei Zhang reveals he held talks to fight Anthony Joshua after his bout with Filip Hrgovi\u0107 last year&#8230; as he claims Eddie Hearn &#8216;liked the idea&#8217; of the heavyweight match-up Zhilei Zhang has revealed how he was in talks to fight Anthony Joshua\u00a0\u00a0 He claimed his team flew out to London to thrash out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EXCLUSIVE: Zhilei Zhang reveals he held talks to fight Anthony Joshua - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/boxing\/exclusive-zhilei-zhang-reveals-he-held-talks-to-fight-anthony-joshua\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE: Zhilei Zhang reveals he held talks to fight Anthony Joshua - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE Zhilei Zhang reveals he held talks to fight Anthony Joshua after his bout with Filip Hrgovi\u0107 last year&#8230; 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