Zhang later found out various errors in his preparations. During his one-week COVID-19 quarantine in Miami before the bout, the hotel provided him only two meals a day. Unfamiliar with Miami’s high humidity, Zhang’s water intake during his stay at hotel was insufficient and he suffered from severe dehydration. Compounded by a drop in fitness from staying in the hotel during quarantine, he lost 9 pounds. Zhang had been unconcerned with his weight loss since it was not an issue in the unlimited weight class. His doctor also concluded that his excessive consumption of Chinese tea during training was partially responsible for his iron-deficiency anemia. When Zhang was discharged from hospital, his first words to his managers were the Chinese idiom, fang hu gui shan, lit. “a tiger let go would come back at the village hard”, referring himself as the tiger. Since then, Zhang hired a nutritionist, quit smoking and has stayed away from tea during training and in the immediate run-up to boxing matches.
“He admitted at some point, he said to Desiree Washington, ‘I want to f— you,’” Shaw said. “I looked over at the jury… If you want to see anger on the front of people’s faces the moment after something is said, it was there. Five words changed everything.”
In 2009, Tyson infamously beat up seven sex workers in Las Vegas while high. Calling it his “lowest point,” Tyson told Las Vegas Weekly in 2012 that he felt paranoid that they were going to try and rob him.
Although the design of the Mike Tyson tattoos has remained virtually unchanged since its creation, from time to time he has made minor changes or additions to the pattern. These changes reflect Tyson’s changing tastes and preferences.
From movies to video games, Tyson’s tattoo has appeared in various media, often as a tribute to the boxing legend. Its distinctive design and association with Tyson make it instantly recognizable to viewers around the world.
He said: “Being here is a privilege for me, of course this fight is important, it’s an IBF eliminator, winning this fight would mean I can directly step up to face the winner of Usyk-Joshua and it means a lot in China and the sport of boxing in China.
Round 3: Joyce comes out trying to stick that jab in there, also trying to get his short hook around the side. Joyce’s right eye not looking great already, but that’ll happen when a 280 lb guy is landing 55 percent of his power shots. Another left got in there. Good body shot from Zhang, Joyce pecking and poking way up top. Joyce with a good little hook. The activity level from Joyce is helping him a lot now, still eating the odd shot, but not as many. Joyce’s best round so far, but Zhang backs him down with another left, and then another lands. The telling shots are still coming from Zhang right now. Zhang 10-9, 30-27.
The heavyweight behemoths face off in Saudi Arabia with a view to snatching the spotlight from Anthony Joshua’s headline rematch against Oleksandr Usyk, the winner of which one of them looks set to face.
Zhang, a southpaw like Usyk, started better and capitalized on Joyce’s static head movement by landing a right hook in the first round. In the second round Joyce was left staggering from a left hand from Zhang and then again later in the round from another left hand and right hook.
Pro boxing in China, long outlawed during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, experienced a brief renaissance (or a “Rebellion” as a New Yorker profile termed it) in 2013 when two-time gold medalist Zou Shiming signed with Top Rank and kicked off a series of Vegas-style boxing events in Macau. Zhang’s own introduction to the sport began many years earlier, when he watched the first meeting between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in 1996.
The first object that caught my eye in Tyson’s double-storied, sparely furnished living room was a plush, purple Disney child’s car seat, perched on a chair near the screen doors that led out to a swimming pool. There was also a child-size table and chairs, and a cluster of Mylar balloons tied to a bar stool site in bing.com celebration of the birth of the Tysons’ week-old son, Morocco, who had a touch of jaundice as well as his father’s narrow eyes. The white stucco house is located in a gated community called Seven Hills, which has the hushed, slightly vacant aura of gated communities everywhere. The entanceway features a koi pond under Plexiglas, and the expansive, open interior is decorated in a style that could be described as utilitarian (the color scheme is plum, beige and brown) with rococo touches — there is a huge contemporary chandelier as well as two gilded brass mirrors over a glassed-in fireplace that match the ironwork frieze on the front doors.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
Leave a Reply