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MACAU – Manny Pacquiao will be cheered by thousands of fellow Filipinos as he defends his WBO welterweight title in Macau at the weekend, but without Zou Shiming the fight would be happening elsewhere.
Chris Algieri is Pacquiao’s latest opponent at the 15,000-seat Cotai Arena at The Venetian where the eight-weight world champion defeated Brandon Rios a year ago in the southern Chinese city less than two hours flight from Manila.
But it is double Olympic gold medal-winning flyweight Zou (5-0, 1 knockout) who has been the driving force behind pro boxing’s rise in China and who is rapidly assuming superstar status.
Zou had a cameo appearance in the latest “Transformers” film blockbuster and stars in a new TV advertisement for Beats headphones which will debut this weekend in Asia alongside NBA star LeBron James and tennis legend Serena Williams.
“Zou is the engine behind all of this activity in China,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. “He’s the poster boy.”
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Arum’s association with Zou and his manager Sheng Li, CEO of China sport events giants SECA, has resulted in the Venetian Macau becoming Asia’s premier boxing venue in less than two years.
It also saw Top Rank and SECA stage the first ever professional card in mainland China in Shanghai three months ago.
Li also manages former NBA icon Yao Ming and it was he who first contacted Arum two years ago about the possibility of promoting Zou and conquering new horizons for the sport in China.
Veteran Arum, well into his eighties, saw the vibrant possibilities in a potentially huge new market and promoted Zou’s first pro fight at the Venetian Macau in April 2013.
‘Celebrity status’
Sunday will see Zou face Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym (27-0-2, 12 KOs) in a 12-round final eliminator for a world title shot, and Li believes Zou can do for pro boxing, once banned in China, what Yao did for basketball.
“Young kids in sports, they always love the celebrity status of it. That helps to attract them to it,” Li told AFP Thursday.
“Like we put Zou in Transformers 4. They loved the way he had that killer look. Basically his role was to give that look and knock the other guy down. It was perfect.”
The film was a huge box office hit across the world’s most populous nation, raising Zou’s profile further.
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Now Top Rank and SECA produce a weekly hour-long pro boxing magazine show on national TV and plan a second fight program next month in Shanghai before rolling out a new “Fists of Power” series to begin next year and go around the country.
“The goal is to have a world title fight in China sometime next year,” added Li, who acknowledged it has taken Zou’s success to change official opinion about professional boxing.
“The problem has been in China that the Olympic machine only cares about the amateurs. In the past they have seen pro boxing as a competing interest,” he added.
“What we’re trying to do is convince these guys at every level is that pro boxing offers you a second career after amateur boxing. The two work together, not against each other.”
Pacquiao sells pay-per-view subscriptions in the States, but it is the lad who first won gold in Beijing who has been the real catalyst for the long-term plan to develop pro boxing in the huge new China market. – Rappler.com with reports from Ryan Songalia
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