Notebook: Zhang, Parker collide in high-stakes heavyweight fight
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WBO interim heavyweight titlist Zhilei Zhang owns two one-sided knockouts of Joe Joyce and the only man to knock out former WBO titlist Joseph Parker is Joyce.
By “Big Bang” Zhang’s logic, he figures he too will stop Parker when they collide in the high-stakes co-feature on the “Knockout Chaos” card headlined by the Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou heavyweight fight on Friday (PPV.com, 1 p.m. ET, $69.99) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
A Zhang win will keep him in position as the WBO mandatory challenger to eventually fight the winner of the May 18 Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk undisputed title fight. A Parker victory would put him in that position.
“By sitting here I am getting the recognition I deserve,” Zhang said at Wednesday’s news conference. “Everybody saw what I did to Joe Joyce, back to back. Joseph Parker is a helluva fighter. He is young, hungry and here for the belt. I am the tiger here. I am here to hunt and, if you want to take the food out of my mouth, you are going to pay the price.”
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