Early career Zhang was highly regarded by American promoters by 2009 In August 2009, The highlight of that training were 11 bouts between the Chinese and American national boxing teams in
Manhattan promoted as "Empires Collide", which Zhang defeated Danny Kelly Jr 16:8 in the main fight. Zhang dominated in all domestic amateur heavyweight competitions from 2005 until 2013. Before 2014, Zhang was a typical product of the Chinese state-centric sports development policy known as
juguo tizhi (举国体制), with all his training schedule, coaching, insurance, housing, and meals arranged and paid for by the Henan Provincial Combat and Weightlifting Center. The Henan Provincial
Department of Sports secured public institution positions for athletes like Zhang should they retire in China. As a result, Chinese boxers had little freedom to choose an alternative promoter. On March 10, 2014, the 31-year-old Zhang signed a four-year and Zhang had only one fight under Dynasty Boxing. Dynasty went bankrupt and closed down in December 2014. Roc Nation's boxing division was in quick decline from 2018, all but ceased working in 2019 and closed down in 2020. Zhang's commercialization was also hampered when CSI Entertainment, the broadcaster that signed an agreement in 2014 with Dynasty Boxing before the latter went bankrupt, disputed Roc Nation's broadcasting rights in Asia. When Shawn George became Zhang's head coach in 2017, George was upset by how the promoters saw Zhang as a novelty act along the lines of
Nikolai Valuev. Roc Nation's boxing division was so quiet in 2019 that Zhang's last match under Roc Nation on November 30 that year with
Andriy Rudenko was in fact promoted by
Matchroom Sport USA, which went on to sign Zhang the next year. The fight had originally been scheduled for November 2018 by Matchroom Sport but Zhang missed out because of
visa problems. Apart from the belated release from the Chinese boxing authorities and the promotional companies' fiasco, Zhang's peak years were also squandered because of
visa troubles as a Chinese citizen which led to the cancellation of several bouts. After a fight in China, he failed to get a visa and was stuck there for ten months between October 2018 and July 2019, missing a fight with
Andriy Rudenko scheduled for November 2018 in
Monaco. The 37-year-old Zhang had to wait another eight months for his next bout on November 7, 2020, with
Devin Vargas on the undercard of the
WBC lightweight title fight between
Devin Haney and
Yuriorkis Gamboa. Zhang's
majority draw with journeyman Jerry Forrest on February 27, 2021, was a landmark moment in his career not because it was the first fight he did not win (22–0–1), but because it finally highlighted how poor his nutrition was. After the fight he was hospitalized. When he woke up in the ambulance, he had no recollections from the sixth round onwards and his first words were asking whether he won or lost the fight. Zhang later found out various errors in his preparations. During his one-week
COVID-19 quarantine in Miami before the bout, the hotel provided him only two meals a day. Many fans thought Zhang vs. Forrest was a better fight than the main bout.
Rise up the ranks Zhang vs. Hrgović Zhang was scheduled to fight
Filip Hrgović in an
IBF title eliminator on 7 May 2022. However, Hrgović pulled out of the fight on 2 May, after his father died and his training suffered. Scott Alexander was chosen as the replacement on the
Canelo Álvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol undercard, with the fight being dropped from the co-main to the undercard. Zhang won the bout via first-round knockout. His fight against Hrgović was rescheduled for 20 August 2022, in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the undercard of
Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua II. On that night, Zhang knocked Hrgović down in the first round with a big right. After a close-fought battle over twelve rounds, the judges awarded the fight to Hrgović with two scores of 115–112 and one of 114–113, in what was described as a "generous" decision by broadcaster
Sky Sports after a "bizarre" performance by Hrgović.
WBO interim heavyweight champion Zhang vs. Joyce It was reported on 20 January 2023, Zhang was to challenge
Joe Joyce (15–0, 14 KOs) for the
interim WBO heavyweight title at on 15 April in London. No details had been finalised at this stage. Joyce won the WBO Interim title in a September 2022 bout against
Joseph Parker. On 2 February,
Queensberry Promotions announced Joyce would defend his WBO Interim heavyweight title at the
Copper Box Arena in London against Zhang on 15 April. The fight would take place on regular
BT Sport.
Frank Warren explained, whilst they wanted to keep Joyce busy before an inevitable world title fight, he would still take on tough challenges. One of the reasons for fighting Zhang was due to him being southpaw, which would help prepare for a future showdown with Usyk. There was a lot of positive response for the fight and many saw it as a 50-50. Many also believed Zhang should have got the decision against Hrgović. Joyce spoke about his frustration at how Dubois got himself into a mandatory position and a world title fight before him. He also mentioned Hrgović being in a better position than him, but stated it was out of his control and all he could do was continue and win fights. Prior to the fight taking place, Zhang warned, "Joe Joyce has good punch resistance but he has never felt Chinese power." This was in reference to Joyce seemingly walking through previous opponents punches. Zhang's trainer Shaun George said they were going into the fight to avoid 'old-fashioned boxing politics', and look for a stoppage. For the fight, two American judges, Mike Fitzgerald and Efrain Lebron, and one English judge, Phil Edwards were chosen by the
BBBofC. British referee Howard Foster was chosen as the third man in the ring. George also voiced concern about the referee decision, as Foster had often been criticized for stopping fights early. Joyce stepped on the scales at 256 pounds, his lowest in four years. Zhang was a pound heavier than his previous fight, weighing in at 278 pounds. In a surprise upset, Joyce lost the fight via TKO in round six, marking the first loss of his professional career. The repeated heavy shots from Zhang caused swelling above Joyce's right eye, causing the referee to wave off the fight. The time of stoppage was 1:34 of the round. In round 1, Zhang took a close round. In the next round, the action picked up. Zhang managed to catch Joyce a few times and ended up drawing blood from his nose. Joyce did his best to fight back towards the end of the round. Round 3 and 4 saw more of the same. Joyce did well to earn round 3 for himself. Zhang came out and landed his power shots to Joyce's chin. Joyce's right eye began to close rapidly through round 5. Joyce was still able to land his jab clean. The ring doctor checked Joyce's right eye after the round. The fight continued on and in round 6, Zhang piled on the power shots landing a 5-punch combination to Joyce's head. Referee Howard Foster stopped the action to bring in the doctor, who rightly stopped the fight. At the end of the fight, the right eye of Joyce was completely closed. Joyce said it was difficult fighting a southpaw after a long time and he had trouble trying to avoid Zhang's left hand. Joyce was disappointed with his performance but credited Zhang on his win. According to Compubox, although Zhang threw 284 few punches than Joyce, he was much more accurate. Joyce landed 85 of 464 punches thrown (18.3%) and Zhang landed 82 of 180 punches thrown (45.6%). Zhang connected with 78 power shots. According to the broadcast team, one judge had Joyce ahead by one round at the time of stoppage. This was called out by fans on social media.
Zhang vs. Joyce II A week after the loss, with a rematch clause in place, Joyce advised that he may take another fight in the interim before having a rematch with Zhang. A decision was to be made by team Joyce, dependant on how well the recovery of Joyce's eye injury came along. Joyce stated although the eye was badly bruised, it did not impair his vision and he could still see. Speaking to iFL TV, Zhang said he respected Joyce more after sharing the ring with him. He praised Joyce's toughness and constant pressure in the ring and welcomed a rematch. Had Joyce not activated the immediate rematch clause, Zhang would have options. Part of the deal for the first bout with Zhang winning, would see him promoted under the Queensberry Promotions banner for the foreseeable. Zhang's co-manager Terry Lane confirmed this. On 12 June 2023, Zhang confirmed he would defend his interim WBO heavyweight title in a rematch against Joyce, after Joyce activated the rematch clause. The rematch was scheduled to take place at the
OVO Arena Wembley in London on 2 September on BT Sport in the UK and
ESPN+ in the United States. On 29 June, a press release confirmed all the details of the fight, with the card taking place on the newly rebranded
TNT Sport, following the
joint venture between BT Group and
Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA. Joyce said he had learned from his previous mistakes. Zhang said he would approach this fight as if he had never fought Joyce before and make history again. Due to the heavyweight mandatory rotation system, the WBO were yet to call. Current unified champion
Oleksandr Usyk was scheduled to defend his titles against
Daniel Dubois in August 2023. A win for Joyce meant he would become next in line to challenge the winner. Joyce previously stated he overlooked Zhang in their first meeting. Trainer Ismail Salas admitted even he overlooked Zhang, but promised the rematch would be different. A week before the fight, Zhang downplayed Joyce's power, saying it was not as he had imagined. Zhang said he enjoyed being in the ring with Joyce, as Joyce did not move his head much and switch his angles, thus making him an easy target. One of the reasons he kept landing his left hand. For the rematch, the three judges were from South Africa, China, and England. Steve Gray was chosen to referee the bout. Despite the mixture of judges, Zhang's trainer Shaun George still did not believe they should leave it to the judges and planned to get a consecutive stoppage win. This was because Zhang was only ahead by one round on two judges scorecards and one judge had Joyce ahead by one round in their first fight. Joyce was a 9–1 favourite going into the first fight. For the rematch, Zhang was the favourite, only slightly. Despite this, George expected the same result as the first fight. At the weigh in, Joyce weighed a career-high 281.2 pounds. He was 25.2 pounds heavier than the previous fight. Zhang also weighed a career-high 287 pounds, 9 pounds heavier than previously. Despite the extra weight, Joyce assured it would not affect his speed. In front of a stunned crowd, Zhang stopped Joyce in third round, in what was described as a highlight reel right hook knockout. Zhang was more dominant in the rematch than the first fight. By the end of round 2, Joyce had swelling under both his eyes, again caused by hard shots, which Joyce was unable to avoid. The end came in round 3 when Joyce attempted to throw a right hand. Zhang, seeing this coming, landed a sharp right hook of his own, landing clean and dropped Joyce face first onto the canvas. Joyce stayed on the canvas for a few moments before trying to get up. However, the fight was stopped as Joyce got to his feet. The time of the stoppage was at 3:07 of round three. After the fight, Warren said Joyce would need to consider retirement following back-to-back defeats as it would be a hard journey back to mandatory status. Joyce said he would come again and retirement was not an option. He took on the challenges he believes he did not need to take, considering the position he was in. Joyce stated he was open to a possible rematch with Daniel Dubois, who in August, was stopped in his attempt to capture the world titles from Usyk. Zhang landed 39 of his 104 punches thrown (36.5%), 29 of them being power shots. Joyce landed only 16 of his 133 thrown (12%) with 10 of them being jabs.
Zhang vs. Parker On 15 January 2024, only weeks after defeating
Deontay Wilder, it was announced that
Joseph Parker (34–3, 23 KOs) would challenge Zhang for the WBO interim title, with the fight scheduled to occur on 8 March, as the co-main event of the
Knockout Chaos event headlined by
Anthony Joshua vs.
Francis Ngannou, at Riyadh's
Kingdom Arena. A formal press conference would later confirm the event. Parker was on a four-fight win streak in 2023, following his stoppage loss to Joyce in September 2022. Speaking of Parker, Zhang didn't believe he would agree to a fight with him so quickly. He called Parker a warrior who doesn't back down from any challenge. Despite Wilder being a favourite, Zhang correctly predicted that Parker would beat Wilder by decision in their meeting. Zhang expected to wear down Parker over the rounds, just as Joyce before him also did. Joyce came forward with constant pressure, which broke Parker mentally down the stretch, causing the stoppage. Zhang predicted he would stop Parker in their fight. A rematch clause was included in the contract for Zhang, meaning had he lost, he would be able to activate an immediate rematch with Parker. This was due to his status with the WBO, being interim champion. There was a 44 pounds weight difference between the two. Zhang weighed 291.6 pounds and Parker came in at 247.6 pounds. Many felt the build up to the fight went below the radar due to the headline. Parker got knocked down twice, but won the fight by majority decision. One judge had the fight even at 113–113, while the other two judges had it 114–112 and 115–111 to Parker. Zhang knocked Parker down in rounds three and eight, but was out-boxed in most of the other 10 rounds. Zhang looked tired most of the fight, some observers put this down to his weight, coming in heavy, made him slower and not attack as much as he did in both his fights against Joyce. Parker won majority of the second half by being a bit busier than Zhang, who was being patient, but looked like he wanted to land the knockout blow. The first knockdown occurred in round three, when Zhang landed a straight left to Parker's head. He was not able to capitalise on this. The second knockdown in round eight, was a right hook to the top of Parker's head. Following the fight, Parker spoke about the rematch clause, being open to it as he was contractually obliged to, and stated they would do it again. According to CompuBox, Parker landed 79 power shots and Zhang only connected with 40 power shots.
Post-title career Zhang vs. Wilder Zhang faced former WBC champion
Deontay Wilder on 1 June 2024 as part of a 5v5 card that pitted boxers from Queensberry Promotions and Matchroom Boxing against each other, with Zhang representing Queensberry and Wilder representing Matchroom. He secured victory in the fifth round after landing a counter right hook that left Wilder reeling. With Wilder defenseless, Zhang rushed in and delivered the knockout. On 26 July, despite not taking an immediate rematch with Parker, Zhang confirmed the clause was still active and he fully intended to take the rematch to avenge his loss.
Zhang vs. Kabayel Zhang faced undefeated
German heavyweight contender
Agit Kabayel on February 22, 2025 on the undercard of
Beterbiev-
Bivol 2 in
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia. The bout was for the vacant
WBC interim heavyweight title. Despite scoring a knockdown in round five, Zhang was unable to withstand Kabayel's relentless body punches, eventually taking a knee in the sixth round after suffering a hard liver shot, where he was counted out. This was the first stoppage defeat of Zhang's career. Following the loss to Kabayel, Zhang looked at options to regain his position as a top contender in the heavyweight division. Knowing that rising prospect Moses Itauma and veteran boxer Derek Chisora were scheduled to appear on the same card in Manchester in December, he began calling them out. Zhang posted an Instagram video, directly addressing Chisora and stating, "I want to fight you. I want to bang you. Maybe you want to bang me, too." A few days later, he turned his attention to Itauma, where he praised him. He told Boxnation, "Anyone who wants to fight me. I want to see that contract. I will sign it." ==Personal life==