China: A Boxing Superpower?

China: A Boxing Superpower?

By Cain Bradley

China is regarded as a world mega power, perhaps only rivalled these days by the United States of America. It is a massive land area and has a population of over 1 billion. It has also become a massive power in a sporting sense as well although some would point to that only being in sports that offer Olympic medals. Like Hitler’s 1936 team and many of the Soviet teams, sporting success was meant to signify the arrival of them as a superpower. Only once since the 1984 Olympics has China finished outside the top four in terms of gold medals. It is also a country with a history in combat sports. So why has it not produced a boxing star? It only has three world champions in its history.

Can Xu challenged Jesus M Rojas for the WBA Regular Featherweight Title in January 2019. It was largely seen as a footnote to another poor DAZN card. Instead, it was an early front-runner for the fight of the year and China got its third male world champion, as Xu upset Rojas, winning a close decision. He joined Xiong Zhao Zhong and Zou Shiming but he also showed that China is still a long way from embracing boxing. It is not a traditional sport in China and most of the interest comes in the shapes of stars. Perhaps the biggest star worldwide in Chinese boxing right now is Zhilei Zhang, the large heavyweight who has been linked with Anthony Joshua. In China though, despite his amateur pedigree which includes a medal at the 2008 Olympics, he is not considered a star. Instead, the superstar remains Zou Shiming. The only problem? He has not boxed for years.

Shìmíng was the first Chinese man to win an amateur world championship and is regarded as the greatest Chinese boxer of all time. To people who only paid attention to boxers from the home nations, he will be remembered for twice defeating Paddy Barnes in Olympic semi finals before going onto capture the gold medals both in 2008 and 2012. Before that his first Olympics actually came in 2004, winning a bronze in 2004 where he lost to Yan Bartelemi. In the meantime, he won three amateur World Championships, despite not competing in 2009. He also won a 2003 silver medal, which tied him at fifth in the most successful amateur World Championship boxers alongside Serafim Todorov, the last man to defeat Floyd Mayweather. It was a hell of an amateur career, no doubt the highlight being the Olympic gold in 2008 which was the 50th Chinese gold medal of their home games. He was even a big favourite of Chinese President Xi Jingping.

Zou did what most successful amateurs do by turning professional. Because of his success and the untapped potential of the Chinese market, he was snapped up by Bob Arum. His debut, and subsequent six bouts, took place in Macau. The Asian Las Vegas has become a bit of a staple for Arum events, hosting events regularly at the Venetian Resort including two Manny Pacquaio fights. That debut was watched by a reported 300 million whilst he produced a gate of $3 million for his second pro fight at the Cotai Arena. Only three countries have a higher population than that number. Li Sheng, President of a leading sports marketing company in China described him as a top three male athlete in China. “He has been responsible for reintroducing boxing to China and when he turned pro that’s pretty much how pro boxing in China took off. There’s a huge anticipation for his fights.” Given the huge interest in him, his amateur experience and age, it was not long before Zou was fighting for a world title.

It was his seventh bout, where he would take on Amnat Ruenroeng. Despite his pre-fight claims that he had all the Chinese people on his back when he fought, he couldn’t overcome the Thai. A controversial knockdown was scored for Zou in the second round but Ruenroeng was too fast to be caught by Zou consistently. Despite defeat as a favourite he claimed “this is not the end. This is just the beginning.” He would not box in Macau again, first going to China then to the United States. After a few rebuilding fights, he got another world title shot, this time taking on Prasitsak Phaprom, who he had previously defeated for the vacant WBO title in a piece of convenient matchmaking. He was comfortable, barely losing a round and dropping Phaprom in round two. The fight, in Vegas, was the first time many Chinese media and fans travelled to Las Vegas to watch a Chinese boxer in a big, top-level boxing show. Again, the viewership numbers claimed by Bob Arum were unfathomably large. In his first defence against Sho Kimura, he was a 10-1 favourite. He led on the scorecards but the pressure of the Japanese fighter told late and Kimura scored a stunning stoppage that left the home supporters shocked into silence. It would be his final stand. He would lose sight in his left eye whilst claims were made by his wife that he was forced to fight through health issues and was owed money by his team.

The history of China’s boxing dates back 3,700 years, when China was in the Late Shang Dynasty, and the sport was one of the subjects for military training conducted by aristocrats. By the Han Dynasty another thousand years later, boxing became a mandatory subject for soldiers. By the 1900s it was mainly a street sport in port cities, although some evidence suggests the Chinese had been using boxing gloves for hundreds of years. At the same time though Kung-Fu (a catch-all term containing numerous disciplines) was beginning to flourish alongside the populist patriotic movement. It promoted its quintessential Chinese lineage, culminating in the sport’s inclusion at the 1936 Olympic Games.
The sport grew rapidly in the 1930s, with no supervision from the Chinese government as some sports academies put boxing classes in their major curriculum and fostered a number of Chinese boxing talents. The problems for boxing began in the 1950s. It did not make the inaugural Chinese National Games when created in 1959, a fact mainly blamed on the death of a boxer in Tianjin in 1953. Boxing would come to be considered a foreign sport.

China had become anti-western and anti-capitalist. The brutal, ruthless nature of boxing had come to be considered a characteristic of the West. China saw itself as about humility, reserve, and containing your anger in the face of confrontation. Boxing was seen as something so American that they decided to put an end to it. Following the Communist Revolution of 1966, all competitive sport was banned. Kung-Fu would arguably suffer a worse fate than boxing as it was curtailed and practitioners brutally persecuted during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. Despite this lack of a tradition for boxing, Muhammad Ali became the first foreign athlete to be jointly invited by the Chinese Olympic Committee and China Sports Federation for a state visit. He famously met with leader Deng Xiaoping,  staying for eight hours and made quick visits to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. The ban on sports would last almost 20 years as the ban was lifted in March 1986 and by the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Chinese boxers were competing.

Whilst the popularity of Shiming was almost unmatched for someone so inexperienced, it did not seem to have a knock-on effect. Other Chinese boxers are not in the same realm of popularity. Zhang Xiaoping also won gold in 2008 with four other medals. Dino Duva worked as a special international consultant “to help raise the level of the boxers, the coaches, the sport in general in China” and considered himself “very impressed, and the boxers looked like they were really, really good.” Xiang Zhao Zhong became the first boxer to win a world title in November 2012. He didn’t capture the masses by any means. Although, that can be attributed to the fact it was in the strawweight division, which struggles to get eyeballs anywhere in the globe. Ma Yiming would lose a world title shot in April 2015. Xu added to the list in 2019 and after his victory, standing in front of a Chinese flag, when asked where his power came from, Xu responded “It’s from China. I am Chinese. For the country” which was greeted by cheers. Nicknamed the monster, he was seen as many a bit of a bogeyman in the division but was disappointing when soundly beaten by Leigh Wood. He was part of M23 (Mission 2023), a team that set a goal upon its founding that they will bring up five world boxing champions before the end of 2023.

With Xu losing another fight at the end of 2022 that goal seems almost impossible at this point. A look at the rankings will tell you that China lack any real contenders. The most famous current Chinese boxer is probably Zhilei Zhang. Long linked with a big money fight with Anthony Joshua, many considered the plodding boxer to be only being built up because of his potential as a money earner. However, a strong performance against Filip Hrgovic, where he arguably deserved the victory showed his ability and he will soon take on Joe Joyce. A win could be massive for Chinese boxing as it will potentially lead to a big-money title shot. Would a top Chinese heavyweight capture the imagination? Perhaps the strongest Chinese boxers at the moment come from the women’s amateur ranks. They won three medals at the 2016 Olympics whilst Gu Hong and Li Qian won silver medals in the delayed Tokyo Olympics. Hu Jianguan won a medal in 2016 and I expected him to do better than he did in Tokyo. Amateur tournaments like the Shuangjing Showdown, have seen growing popularity after first being held in the capital in 2015.

Another idea to grow the sport came from a partnership between Top Rank and SECA organising “League of Fists,” which aimed to grow the sport. There seems to be no record of this continuing over the past few years, although Covid restrictions have probably played a role. For a boom in Chinese talent in the boxing ring it will likely come from the amateur circuit. According to a report from China Central Television, industry insiders believe that in the past the focus of national sports authorities was to improve the competitive level of professional boxers rather than amateur enthusiasts, so more work needs to be done to popularize the sport. It has also been seen as a “luxury for many ordinary wage earners,” as opposed to the relatively cheap sport it is seen as being in Britain. If it is not made affordable to the masses then the sport may remain in the minority despite the vast resources potentially available.

Honestly, boxing has maybe missed its chance to make it big in China. That is not to say it doesn’t have enormous potential down the road. The momentum from the 2008 Olympics, with the funding and push for medals led by a regime desperate to put on a show for the world, was one opportunity. Whereas in some sports, that became the base level of Chinese sport, boxing never really benefitted from that. The other opportunity was to really benefit from the exposure that Shiming provided. The popular boxer could have fronted massive cards in China, with undercards showcasing the upcoming Chinese talents as well as potential star attractions to help the popularity boost. Unfortunately, it did not work seem to work out that way. That means China remains a dormant power in the world of boxing. Maybe, the Chinese prefer the rigid structure offered in the UFC. The quantity and quality of fighters are certainly higher, although to some extent is that matched by investment from the UFC which boxing, with its lack of a universal body doesn’t have the same appetite for. Maybe, it’s just never gonna happen.