Chinese National Boxing Team To Participate In Amateur Bouts At WBC “Night Of Champions” Event

The Chinese national boxing team will play a prominent role in this year’s WBC Night of Champions international boxing festival in Cardiff, 29-31 July.

Leading members of the Chinese team will fight alongside Olympic medal-hopefuls from Germany, Ireland, Kazakhstan and the United States as part of the Rest of the World team against Britain’s Olympic medal contenders..

Included in the Chinese team are world famous fighters such as Zhilei Zhang, Fanlong Meng, Janting Zhang, Qiong Maimaitituersun, Richabilige Hu, Quiang Liu, Juan Tan, Jaiwei Zhang, and Shiming Zou.

The Chinese national team’s pre-Olympic training camp has been arranged to coincide with the Night of Champions festival, so that their boxers could participate in the tournament, and have a chance to meet and be encouraged by some of the greatest Olympic champion boxers of all-time, who will be attending the Night of Champions event.

Such is the prospective interest among Chinese boxing fans, that event organisers are partnering with Green Leaf Film Studios, a Chinese-owned, but Western managed media company, to provide coverage of the event in China, so that Chinese fans can see their own national team competing with the best in the world, and see them meeting previous Olympic and World title holders.

The Chinese visit is the first part of a potential three-year pre-London 2012 programme developed by the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association (WABA), the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), and the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA).

The Chinese national team will return to Cardiff next year for a major pre-Olympic Games tournament between China v Great Britain. Subject to further discussions, it is hoped that the Chinese Olympic Boxing Team will return in 2012 to prepare for the London Games. Sport Wales are providing the accommodation and facilities for the Chinese team during their training camp at the National Centre in Cardiff.

Rob McCracken, Performance Director at the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) stated, “Preparing our men and women for the 2012 Games is critical. The Chinese team are quickly becoming one of the best in the world, and we want to ensure Britain is preparing against the best, to continue building on the outstanding success of the team at the European Championships. Sport Wales’ support shows how we are uniting to give the British team every chance possible to win medals at the London Games.”