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.”
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the
RSS