Within the Queensberry vs Matchroom 5v5, Frank Warren’s Queensberry staff was dominant as Zhilei Zhang knocked out the previous WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder within the fifth spherical of the primary occasion and accomplished the sweep of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom squad.
The inaugural 5v5 occasion happened on the Kingdom Enviornment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The construct as much as the Wilder-Zhang bout was the equal to a crossroads combat through which the winner continues his boxing journey, and the loser packs it up and calls it a profession.
Within the opening spherical of the heavyweight contest, each fighters have been pawing with their lead hand looking for the vary. Zhang persistently pressed ahead whereas Wilder tried to determine himself on the again foot.
Within the opening minute of the second spherical, Zhang backed Wilder right into a nook and hit him with a flurry of pictures. Within the remaining minute of the second, Wilder landed a proper hand, and Zhang responded by connecting with a mixture.
Within the third spherical, Wilder remained gun shy as he appeared hesitant with reference to letting his fingers go. Within the fourth spherical, Zhang continued to press ahead and put psychological strain on Wilder. Zhang was economical along with his punches as the primary 4 rounds of the bout lacked motion.
Wilder began the fifth spherical by connecting with a strong right-hand shot. He adopted it up by touchdown two further proper fingers. With 1:26 left to go within the fifth spherical, Zhang hit Wilder with a proper hook that made Wilder do a 360 spin.
Zhang hit Wilder with a second right-hand shot that despatched Wilder all the way down to the canvas. The previous heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder slowly received up, however he was in no situation to proceed because the referee put a halt to the competition.
Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) collected the most important win of his profession, and he secured the sweep, because the Queensberry staff received all 5 matches. With the victory, the 41-year-old Zhang has put himself ready to get one other massive combat.
Deontay Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) might be headed to a spot known as retirement. Wilder was an overachiever as he had restricted boxing abilities, however he managed to win a world title and have ten profitable title defenses.
Wilder is tall, however he’s all the time been an undersized heavyweight. In his bout in opposition to Zhang, Wilder was outweighed by 68 kilos, as he got here in at 214 and Zhang weighed in at 282.
The night time of June 1, 2024, could have been Deontay Wilder’s final boxing match. Previous to the bout, Wilder spoke about retirement, and normally, when an athlete speaks about retirement earlier than a contest, that’s an indication that the athlete has already mentally checked out.
