China’s super-heavyweight Olympic silver medalist Zhang Zhilei is working with Hall of Fame trainer Lou Duva as part of his preparations for the 2012 Games, Xinhua news agency said.
The 26-year-old amateur, a bronze medalist at the 2007 world championships, is already in the US working with Duva, who has handled world champions including Evander Holyfield.
“My dream is to win the title at the London Olympics,” the 201cm Zhang, who lost to Italian Roberto Cammarelle in the final in Beijing last year, told Xinhua.
PHOTO: AP
“These trainers are very dedicated to their professions,” he said. “They have been training me mainly on my awareness and the tactics to deal with different types of opponents. I feel I have improved a lot.”
China has little pedigree in boxing, where home-grown martial arts are far more popular.
Light-flyweight Zou Shiming, however, won the country’s first Olympic medal — a bronze — in the ring in Athens in 2004 and was one of two gold medalists on home soil at the Beijing Games.
Promoters D & D Global, run by Duva’s son Dino and Richard Davimos, said the work with Zhang was just the start of a deal that will see more of China’s top prospects being trained in the US.
“It’s an honor that the Chinese Boxing Federation has entrusted me with its premiere boxers in this training cooperation program,” Duva, 87, told www.fightnews.com. “Working with all of the Chinese fighters is an incredible and exciting opportunity.”
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