Wilder vs. Zhang Media Workout – ‘It’s Not Going The Distance’

Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang held their media workouts before their heavyweight clash on Saturday. 

Both fighters have plenty to prove following their last performances. Wilder looked far from the man who developed a reputation for being a knockout artist. He only won a round against Joseph Parker, as the Bronze Bomber looked gunshy. He chose to box on the back foot rather than take the fight to Parker, who simply outboxed him. The defeat ended hopes of a Wilder fight with Anthony Joshua. 

Zhang also lost to Parker in his last fight, but his performance was much better than Wilder. The Chinese sent Parker to the canvas on two occasions. While that may have been the case, he could not finish him off like he did to Joe Joyce on two consecutive occasions. That allowed Parker to work his way back into the fight as he outboxed the Chinese, who slowed down considerably. The media workouts showed Wilder using his right hand while Zhang focused on fighting outside of the southpaw stance. 

Predictions

“When we saw Deontay Wilder in London, we did think he looked a bit different, like he was more on the job, and I was speaking to Tyson about it the other day and he thinks Wilder beats Zhang, Tyson thinks Wilder stops him,” Tyson Fury

“That’s a tough one, because if you’re going on past performances you’d say Zhilei Zhang. I would still lean towards Zhang even though he’s there to be hit, he can take a shot, but I know Deontay Wilder… I’ve never seen anybody hit so hard. So I wonder what Zhang will be like once he gets hit, because he will get hit by Wilder. “I’m going Zhang. I just think we’ve seen the best of Wilder, maybe [the Parker fight] was just a bad night, but I think we’ve seen the best of him. So I’m going Zhang. That’s one-nil to Frank Warren,” Johnny Nelson 

“Massive fight for both guys coming off of a loss, well both coming off those losses to Joseph Parker, very very interesting fight. If Deontay Wilder can bring back the old magic, if he can throw punches because he didn’t really throw anything last time, it was a very strange performance, or maybe it was Joseph Parker nullifying him, maybe people aren’t giving Joseph Parker the credit he deserves from deactivating ‘The Bronze Bomber,” David Haye

“Zhang looked like he was heading straight to the titles with two impressive knockouts over Joe Joyce, but he was also brought down to Earth by Parker. He’s gone about his work in a quieter manner than Wilder, but at his best, he’s a very dangerous man with a huge left hand. With a gun to my head, I’m going to say Zhang but ask me tomorrow or the next day and it could well be Wilder. Both are massive punchers with Wilder’s right hand more explosive than Zhang’s left, but after watching them both against Parker, I genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen,” Tony Bellew

Highlights

Full Card

Zhilei Zhang vs. Deontay Wilder; Heavyweight

Daniel Dubois vs. Filip Hrgovic; Heavyweight

Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Austin Williams; Middleweight

Dmitry Bivol vs. Malik Zinad; For Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title

Raymond Ford vs. Nick Ball; For Ford’s WBA featherweight title

Willy Hutchinson vs. Craig Richards; Light heavyweight 

Comments

Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com.