Anthony Joshua called out by old Olympic rival Zhilei Zhang to Chinese superfight at the huge 100,000-seater Bird’s Nest

Published

13th February 2021

CHINESE giant Zhilei Zhang has called out Anthony Joshua for a blockbuster bout in his home country.

Zhang, 37, believes a scrap with Britain’s heavyweight king would sell-out Beijing’s 100,000-seater Bird’s Nest Stadium.

Zhilei Zhang has ambitions to take on AJ after Jerry Forest

The 6ft 6inch Southpaw takes on American Jerry Forest in Florida on February 27 looking to extend his record to 23-0.

But he has ambitions to come between AJ and Tyson Fury with the duo deep in negotiations to finalise the Battle of Britain.

Zhang wants revenge on Joshua after suffering defeat in their amateur days in the quarter-finals at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Reported by FightMag, Zhang said: “I would love to fight AJ in China because of our amateur backgrounds.

“The venue is there, the Bird’s Nest holds 100,000, so we have it all.

“Beijing and Shanghai are the biggest cities, very economically developed and boxing in China is growing.

“The sports fans there like boxing, they like AJ, so if we can make it happen it would be huge for boxing.”

But Zhang will have to bide his time with Joshua and Fury likely to fight twice this year.

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Anthony Joshua and Zhang have history as amateur boxers

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The first of them – worth around £200million – is likely to take place in June.

Both parties are nearing the point now where everything can be signed, but there are still three key details which need to be agreed.

They include who will ringwalk first, who gets their name first on the billboard and the location of the fight.