Tony Bellew Believes Zhilei Zhang Is Dangerous But Expects Tyson Fury To Win In A Potential Fight
Tony Bellew believes Zhilei Zhang could pose some problems for Tyson Fury, but thinks the Brit would get his hand raised.
Zhang scored a third-round KO over Joe Joyce in their immediate rematch on Saturday to remain the interim WBO heavyweight champion. With the win, the hope is Zhang can secure a big fight next time out, but Bellew thinks the Chinese heavyweight will have a hard time getting an opponent.
“He’s dangerous isn’t he? No one is going to want to touch him with a barge pole… listen, the likes of Usyk will just go, ‘What do I want him for? I’m not touching him, it doesn’t do anything for me.’ Now, this will be a little bit of a Catch-22 position because he should be an undefeated fighter. I thought he’d beat Filip Hrgovic, I really do, I like Hrgovic he’s a good fighter but I thought he lost to Zhang but he just didn’t get it,” Bellew explained to Talk Sport.
“Now, if Zhang was an undefeated fighter, it’s a more attractive opposition to the other heavyweights out there because they’d be like, ‘I want to put a dent in him and be the first to beat him’. Because he’s now got a loss on his record, even though it’s not a proper loss, fighters will go, ‘Well listen if I beat him, everyone will say it’s because I’m supposed to, Hrgovic has already beaten him’. So he’s not an attractive option,” Bellew continued.
One potential opponent would be Tyson Fury, who’s set to take on Francis Ngannou on Oct. 28. It’s a massive fight, and if Fury does take the fight against Zhang, Tony Bellew thinks ‘The Gypsy King’ would get his hand raised.
“I think Tyson Fury would beat him hands down, I think Fury beats almost everyone in the world barring Usyk. I just think Fury is so good but at the same time, there’s nothing to win by facing Zhang. He’s not a world champion, he’s not undefeated and he’s super dangerous,” Bellew said. “He can wallop with either hand. It’s just not someone you take on, I’m talking from a boxing business perspective, I’m not talking as a boxing fan. As a boxing fan, a great fight would be Zhang against [Anthony] Joshua, that would be brilliant.”
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