The final press conference was held today in Brussels, Belgium, ahead of the WBA cruiserweight world title fight this Saturday between champion Ryad Merhy (29-1, 24 KOs) and challenger Zhaoxin Zhang (10-1-1) of China. The fighters didn’t have much to say, but here are some quotes from others involved in the various camps.
Alain Vanackère, Ryad Merhy’s manager: “Mr. Zhang comes from China. His promoter is one of the best in China. I had the opportunity to see him box in November 2019 at the WBA convention in Fuchu. I was very impressed by Zhang, he is very big and very strong.
“Zhang is a great fighter, who presents about 100 fights in various disciplines, including martial arts. Zhang is 25 years old and a former elite military officer. He has practiced Thai boxing and MMA in competition. After his military service, he took up boxing and turned pro four and a half years ago. He created the surprise, in 2019 by winning by KO1 against the Chinese hopeful Zulipkaer Maimaitiali, for the WBA Asia belt. He then conquered the WBC OPBF belt and won by KO9 for the WBC Asia title in December 2020. He is champion in a country with 1 billion 600 million inhabitants. And champion of Asia, a continent that is home to 4 and a half billion people. If that doesn’t mean something. We know Ryad Merhy in Belgium for his qualities as a boxer and his human qualities. Everyone knows that he has an exceptional career. At 24 years old we tried to get a world title against Goulamirian. We knew it was a bit early, but if we didn’t do it at that moment we would have had to wait a long time. He took the challenge and failed. The documentary “Resilience” by Didier Malchaire traces the path that Ryad followed after this defeat to return to the highest level.
Bilal Ben Sidi, Ryad Merhy’s coach: The preparation went well. We went to Fuerteventura for a training course where we did a big preparation, focusing on Lerena. We left with the whole team so we had our sharing partners: Kamel Kouaouch and Hervé Hubeaux. When we came back, we worked with a left-handed player at first. With the change of opponent, we tried to fall back on our feet. We adapted and Ryad trained with the Frenchman Samuel Kadje: strong, tall, same physical, same kind of boxing as Zhang. Ryad did his rounds, he drilled well, turned well. He is ready.
Like all the boxers here, Ryad is thirsty. He wants to box again. This is his first defense, everything has to be done, everything has to be proven. But Ryad is here, he is more ready than ever. The Goulamirian episode made him grow, it gave him even more hunger and it motivated him even more. »
Hector Bermudez, Ryad Merhy’s coach: Ryad is the world champion. Of course, he’s on the shape. Of course, he’s gonna get the knockout. This fight does not ask any questions. The real fight are the undercard: Miko Khatchatryan, Antoine Vanackère, Hovo Martirosyan. »
Hongbao Ren, Zhaoxin Xhang’s Coach: Zhaoxin is in real good condition, he is in really good shape. It’s the first time he is coming outside of china to actually having a fight. It was a hero dream for Zhang to become a kung-fu fighter. After his military service, he went to a boxing gym and knew that this was his destiny. That’s where he discovered his passion for boxing. Zhaoxin didn’t have an amateur carrier in boxing. He went directly to pro boxing. There are few professional boxers in China. But there is a lot of interest in amateur boxing, probably because of the Olympics.”
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