To no great surprise, plenty of people from the boxing world have had a strong reaction to the report yesterday that said a fight between huge heavyweight punchers Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang was close, with the fight being “finalized” for June 1, as per the tweet from Mike Coppinger.
Numerous boxing websites have ran articles on the quite fascinating match up, while a number of boxing channels on you Tube have features on the upcoming fight.
Upcoming fight?
Is Zhang-Wilder really going to happen, though? In this day and age where rumours are everywhere, disappointment is inevitable, with rumour A, B, and sometimes C being shut down not long after we fans wanted to believe it and got all excited about the rumoured fight. It seems this could be the case with Wilder-Zhang.
Eddie Hearn, doing a short interview with IFL TV, said the fight is “not done.”
“No,” Hearn said when asked if Wilder-Zhang was done. “There’s a lot of heavyweight fights being discussed…..that’s a great fight. Obviously, there’s the ‘Five Vs. Five,’ there’s Artur Beterbiev versus [Dmitry] Bivol, there’s loads of big fights. So, no, but I’m sure there’ll be some massive fights come June 1st in Saudi Arabia.”
Meanwhile, Frank Warren was far from happy when he was asked about the reports of Wilder-Zhang being close.
“I’ve got nothing to say about it,” Warren said of a possible Wilder-Zhang fight, the promoter shaking his head as he spoke to IFL. “Shouldn’t have been [put] out.”
And that was it, Warren had nothing else to say on the matter.
So, did Coppinger jump the gun, or are Hearn and Warren out of the loop as far as this fight is concerned? This seems unlikely, as both promoters enjoy a close working relationship with the Saudis. It is to be hoped this massively intriguing heavyweight collision does indeed come off, but as far as Hearn and Warren are concerned, Wilder Vs. Zhang is talk and nothing more at this stage.
