Chinese Boxing Make History

[RebelAzn]

It wasn't too long ago boxing was outlawed in China by Mao. They are making a comeback in the Olympics.

The super heavy weight Zhilei Zhang is 6'7" tall 265 lbs. The dude is a beast. Wonder if he will turn pro.

Chinese Boxers Make History

Print Page
Send to a Friend

By Zhenyu Li Ringside in Beijing: Five Chinese boxers have managed to squeeze into the last eight even without China’s finest Shiming Zou, which is by far the best China has achieved in its 22-year-old Olympic boxing history.

China’s super heavyweight Zhilei Zhang blasted Mohamed Amanissi of Morocco 7-0 on Wednesday, becoming the first Chinese boxer to qualify for the Quarter Finals.

The second-best Chinese boxer, welterweight Silamu Hanati crushed the low-rated Cameroonian Joseph Mulema 9-4 the following day to secure a birth in the last eight.

Although being outclassed both in skills and tactics, the Cameroonian showed no signs of fear, pushing forward, like a bulldozer, and throwing wild punches. His endeavor was effortless as Silamu trapped him with nifty footwork and countered him with blazing fists.

The Chinese welterweight ended the fight with a five point margin. He will face a Bahamian fighter on Sunday in his next bout, which is in strong favor of the Chinese.


On the same day, Chinese light heavyweight Xiaoping Zhang shocked the world by outclassing the World Championships silver medalist Russian Artur Beterbiev by a large margin 8-2 on Tuesday. After suffering a 0-2 loss in the opening round, he adjusted his strategy.

In the next three rounds, he danced around the ring like a guerrilla, darting in and out, creating angles and throwing cold punches. The strategy worked perfectly as was witnessed in the last three rounds that the Russian didn’t score a single point in the entire six minutes.

The dark horse of the day was born when Zhang wept the World Championships runner-up 8-2.

In the just concluded two second-round matches, China’s featherweight Yang Li and lightweight Qing Hu both outpointed their opponents, making them the fourth and fifth Chinese boxers into the Quarter Finals.

With five boxers locked up in their quarter-finals brackets even without China’s finest Shiming Zou, the Asian Giant is now a strong contender for the Olympic medals.

Shiming Zou is a two-time light flyweight world champion. He will be competing in his second fight on Saturday.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gJt7W4d4F9Kh/610x.jpg

[awong]

one thing about olympic boxing is the scoring is very confusing to me, different from how professional is scoring, kinda wish they used a similar system

[RebelAzn]

one thing about olympic boxing is the scoring is very confusing to me, different from how professional is scoring, kinda wish they used a similar system

If they did that, half of the fighters would be half dead before they can box the next round. If you have seen pro boxing, most boxers are literally drained after a fight. In Olympics, you have to fight multiple rounds. I believe you have to land a hit before it is count as a point. Many former Olympics medalists turn pro. I don't know if they gonna allow anyone from China to turn pro, but it would be interesting to see a Chinese in pro boxing one of these days.

[howstrange]

I just watched a couple of matches and must say the judging is wacked. I think they screwed over our American boxers on the judging table.

[RebelAzn]

After USA welterweight champ Demetrius Andrade lost his fight to South Korean fighter Kim Jungjoo, he blamed the judges. Also, he walked out of the ring before they announce the winner. That was a poor show of sportsmanship regardless of the scoring. Anyway, USA has just one fighter left.

Here is an article sort of explained the situation. Regardless how these things go, they got to go with the system and box within the system.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/7732011

[kimtae]

Howard Cossell was once on Letterman talking about an offer he got from the then WWF to announce pro-wrestling. He turned it down of course and when asked by Letterman if he did so because wrestling was fixed he replied that wasn't the reason, after all he had been announcing Olympic boxing for most of his career and nothing was more fixed than that. Olympic boxing is a farce.
RA, you're wrong about judging it like the pros. Why would they be half-dead? They only box 3 rounds using headgear and bigger gloves and than the pros. Pro boxers are drained because they go 10-12 rounds. They used to go 15.

[nottyboy]

I'm also at a loss as to how they score the boxing under international amateur rules. Watching some of the fights, there were a lot of clear punches that just didn't get counted. Still, none of the announcers from that TV station said anything, so I just chalked it up to my ignorance.

[zhangfei]

Howard Cossell was once on Letterman talking about an offer he got from the then WWF to announce pro-wrestling. He turned it down of course and when asked by Letterman if he did so because wrestling was fixed he replied that wasn't the reason, after all he had been announcing Olympic boxing for most of his career and nothing was more fixed than that. Olympic boxing is a farce.
RA, you're wrong about judging it like the pros. Why would they be half-dead? They only box 3 rounds using headgear and bigger gloves and than the pros. Pro boxers are drained because they go 10-12 rounds. They used to go 15.

There is a new scoring system now and the boxers go for 4 rounds instead of 3. I think the electronic scoring system brings about better, more consistent performances by judges.

http://boxing.about.com/od/amateurs/a/oly_rules.htm

[minorTruths]

They only box 3 rounds using headgear and bigger gloves and than the pros. Pro boxers are drained because they go 10-12 rounds. They used to go 15.

The rules changed due in part to Duk Koo Kim's death.

[kimtae]

There is a new scoring system now and the boxers go for 4 rounds instead of 3. I think the electronic scoring system brings about better, more consistent performances by judges.

http://boxing.about.com/od/amateurs/a/oly_rules.htm
Four rounds, whatever, they prance around like ninnies the whole time afraid to get hit, never get in any decent shots because of the ridiculous clown gloves they wear, and then have controversial endings in a large percentage of the matches. Olympic boxing is a disgrace and has been for decades. They need to go to three rounds with gloves like the pros, judged like the pros with open card results at the end of each round.

[zhangfei]

A lot of things have changed in amateur boxing the last two years.
(Amateur boxing's reputation is improving after years of having to defend itself against claims of corruption.
http://in.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idINIndia-34334120080702)


A lot of people dislike amateur boxing because it doesn't look like pro boxing. But amateur and pro boxing are two different sports: rules differences, scoring difference, headgear and bigger gloves in ama boxing, length of contest, lack of inside fighting in ama boxing, and different tactics used to win. Last night I watched the super-heavyweight bout between Zhang of China and Myrsatayev of Kazkhstan. Zhang dropped Myrsatayev with a single punch in the second round, and then again in the fourth. Each knockdown earned him one point, same score he would have earned if he hit his opponent in the face with a good jab. That wouldn't have happened in pro boxing. Different sports, different emphasis.

Ama boxing is not as violent as pro boxing. It is still dangerous. (Amateur boxers are as likely as professional ones to suffer brain damage after fights in the ring, according to a recent study conducted by Swedish researchers. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Boxing-Damages-Brain-Despite-Headgear-Protection-35433.shtml )


I doubt that three-round bout with pro scoring is better. Shorter fights inevitably produce more close fights, and close fights in turn produce more controversial decisions. I don't think the current scoring system is great, but I think it is much better than what they had in the past.