Enter The Dragon! China’s Strange Heavyweight Dragon King, 17-0 Jun Long Zhang
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
At the ripe young age of 35, Jun Long Zhang, 17-0 with 17 knockouts, Qingdao, China, has won five consecutive World Boxing Association Oceania Heavyweight regional title bouts. The Chinese have been accused of fraud in his bouts, primarily because Chinese sanctioned bouts in mainland China are relatively new and are obscure in their reporting methods.
Actually, Zhang’s 17-0 record is legitimate. All of Zhang’s bouts have been held in mainland China against imported mediocre opponents. Thus far, Zhang remains untested. What makes the ‘Dragon King’ interesting is the possibility of a Chinese heavyweight challenging a Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua or Joseph Parker for the world heavyweight title.
At 6’3” and 282 pounds, Zhang will have to weigh in substantially less to have any chance against a main event heavyweight. The man is a beast, a dragon waiting to pounce. Much like the ‘Enter The Dragon’ movie which Bruce Lee starred in over 40 years ago, Zhang is the heavyweight version of a dragon, if is there is such a thing to be found. Chinese fighters are an odd oddity edition to the boxing game. It is sort of like Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
The day may come soon when a Chinese heavyweight may challenge for the world heavyweight title. Whoever it is will have billions of fans watching on pay-per-view. The ‘Dragon King’ is marketable, but at age 35, they better not wait too much longer to sell the fight. Zhang’s most recent bout, a second round knockout of 30-3 Pedro Otas of Brazil, who is really a cruiserweight, is not turning heads in the direction of the’Dragon King’.
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