WBO interim heavyweight champion Zhilei Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) weighed in at 291.6 lbs for his title defense against Joseph Parker (34-3, 23 KOs) for their twelve-round chief support bout on Friday on DAZN PPV at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Parker weighed in at 247.6 lbs, which is 44 lbs less than what the two-time Chinese Olympian Zhang came in at. For fans alarmed at Zhang’s weight, he weighed 287 lbs for his last fight against Joe Joyce last September, and he made easy work of him, scoring a third-round knockout.
Joyce had destroyed Parker in 11 rounds in September 2022, beating him the entire contest. If that version of Parker shows up on Friday, he won’t stand a chance against Zhang.
Can Parker Overcome History and the Size Difference?
Joseph Parker weighed in at 247.6 lbs, while WBO interim heavyweight champion Zhilei Zhang came in at a huge 291.6 lbs at today’s weigh-in for their co-feature clash this Friday on the Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou card on DAZN PPV at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“I can’t wait to go out there and show everybody what I’ve been working on,” said Joseph Parker to Matchroom Boxing YouTube channel about his fight against WBO interim heavyweight champion Zhilei Zhang this Friday.
“What a fight this is, I love the stardown as well. He was very aggressive against Deontay Wilder, and sort of caught Deontay by surprise. Are you expecting that kind of aggressiveness from Joseph Parker on Saturday night?” said Ariel Helwani.
“If he wants to be aggressive, so be it. Everything is finished. All the hard work is finished; everything is finished. I’ll see him tomorrow night,” said Zhang.
“Yesterday, he said he was going to bang Zhang. I wonder how you feel about that,” said Helwani. “I’ve heard a lot of talk about what the main event is getting. We know about May 18th. What does a win get Zhilei Zhang? Where does that put him in the heavyweight division?
“It’ll put me right on the top,” said Zhang.
“Zhilei Zhang has a way of smiling and tricking you, but deep down, he’s very menacing,” said Ade Oladipo.
“Out of all the heavyweights in the world, if I was competing now, he’d be in my eyes the toughest to beat. I’m talking about Fury, AJ, and Ngannou. His style, his rhythm, and now that he’s started putting some conditioning in, now he can fight for longer rounds,” said David Haye about Zhang.
“When he fought Filip Hrgovic, he ran out of gas. Against Joyce, he kept it grinding, and he realized the only reason he was beatable was because he ran out of steam. Now, that he’s addressed that, he’s a real problem for anyone,” Haye continued about Zhang.
“His chin is solid; he punches from crazy angles, has a good work rate, and educated pressure the way he steps back and counters. He’s a problem for anyone. I thought Parker wasn’t going to beat Wilder. I didn’t think he had a chance on the strength of him losing against Joyce the way he did.
“He showed that he’s rejuvenated. It’s like he’s gone into a time machine and gone back to the good old days because he’s looking fresh as a daisy, but it’s going to be so difficult to beat Zhang,” said Haye.