ZHILEI ZHANG wouldn’t be drawn on how he could beat Daniel Dubois should they ever meet but the Chinese heavyweight did dish out praise for the British fighter in a recent interview with Boxing News.
Zhang’s career suffered a setback in March, losing to Joseph Parker on points, but returned to winning ways with an emphatic fifth-round victory over Deontay Wilder three months later.
The 41-year-old, who has an 81 per cent knockout ratio in 30 fights, has joined the line of rivals looking to face Dubois who annihilated Anthony Joshua last month at Wembley Stadium.
Dubois, who has losses to Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk on his record, now sits as IBF heavyweight champion and is in the form of his life. And Zhang has been impressed by ‘Dynamte’ Daniel and explained to BN exactly why.
“People think he’s a quitter but I never look at him as a quitter,” he said.
“His fight before Usyk (against Kevin Lerena) everyone said he has a knee injury, his knee was bothering him. Here’s what I see what people don’t see. He’s a very smart boxer and he’s a very smart person. He knows how to protect himself in order to make a comeback.
“So, when [his] eyesocket was broken (against Joyce), in that type of condition he utilised the rule. He took a knee to protect himself for a better comeback. That’s a very smart move, intelligent and everyone see what happened. He come back. Three fights in a row and put himself right on top of the mountain.
“I’m really impressed by his mentality and how he approaches things but at the same time he’s confident, he’s hungry, he’s young – I think he’s all around a great fighter.”